At All Cost
by Nuttyginger
Summary: Forgivenness is hard to do but when it is needed in more than one area it becomes even harder. Posted in Buffy cause it involoves present and past Buffy Characters
1. Default Chapter

Wolfram and Hart have decided that Angel and Angelus are too much trouble so they set out on his destruction. They have to choose their weapons with precision.  
  
Sort of set after Reunion and mixed in a bit of Epiphany but it then follows a totally different timeline from the episodes then I've added some stuff in to add interest!!! It a series!  
  
  
At All Costs...  
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She stood outside the door that had became familiar to her many years before. Too many years apart and too many mistakes made. She knocked firmly on the heavily engraved wooden door. She heard the masculine footsteps and when the door opened she saw the familiar warm, comforting face of their owner.  
  
"Cordelia!" Giles exclaimed "What a surprise to see you here. Oh come in out of the rain."  
  
The dreary weather has greeted Cordelia not long after she passed the 'Welcome To Sunnydale' sign. It reflected her mood as if the Powers That Be could tell that she needed to be even more depressed. Cordelia didn't even know why, when she had left the hotel she had gone home and packed an overnight bag then headed back to Sunnydale of all places, but here she was.   
  
"Thanks Giles." She said shaking hair wet hair out onto Giles wooden floor.  
  
She took a seat on the couch in the living room and noticed the TV sitting in the corner.   
  
'Maybe Giles has caught up with the 21st Century after all' She thought to herself as he handed her a towel to dry her hair.  
  
"So Cordelia why are you here?" Giles asked while placing a cup of coffee on the table in front of her.  
  
The truth was she didn't know why she was here, or why she chose to descend upon Giles' house, she just needed to get out of LA and as far away from Angel as she could.  
  
"I'm on vacation time." She lied and Giles raised a sceptical eyebrow. "OK quit with the eyebrows, that's my trick. Angel fired me and I didn't want to stay in LA to watch him self destruct. God I never realised Vampires could be so stubborn. That idiot sacked me and now what am I meant to do with these damn visions? I mean the Powers That Be are good with the given and bad when you want to return them."   
  
She continued to rant, now pacing the floors, while Giles just sat there as the old Cordelia flashed at him only to be quickly stifled again.  
  
"Wesley is fine 'Cos he can go back and do the Watcher gig, Gunn can...can do what ever he did when Angel wasn't around. But me." She shouted. "I gave up everything so that he could get his damn Shansu. My acting, even though Angelus was right; I'm crap, my countless dates that great-Broodyness has scared away. The film producer, oh he was a cute and successful. Ahhh." She cried out as she sunk to the floor.  
  
Giles watched in slow motion as Cordelia grabbed her head before falling to the hard wooden floor, her head hitting it but not with enough force to do any damage. He ran to her side and lifted her head as she squirmed around the floor, fitting and crying in his arms.   
  
She slowly opened her eyes, the tears clouding her visions. She could see a male form and the words escaped her lips before she could think straight.  
  
"Angel?"  
  
Giles was taken slightly aback at the fear and innocence in her eyes as she slowly calmed down and opened her eyes. He heard he whisper the Vampires name and finally it clicked into place.  
  
"No Cordelia, it's Giles, your in Sunnydale. What happened?"  
  
Cordelia slowly pulled herself to her feet, clawing at Giles jumper. She reached into her bag and pulled out the slim-line cell phone and pushed in one button.  
  
"Hello Wesley? I had one. It was down at the warehouses near where Gunn lives....A rising with those horned demons we've been chasing...yeah those are the ones. Three human sacrifices, two kids and an altar that looks like it came form the Ark, probably did....A few days...You guys OK with it?...Right see you soon." She hung up the phone to fine a very confused English man staring at her.  
  
"Cordelia what's going on?"  
  
"That was a vision from the Powers That Be. They were given to me from a friend through a kiss before he died." She winced at the sad memory. "I took over his job, some job, as a Seer to help Angel save all these people and get his Shansu, to become human."  
  
"My God Cordelia. You sound as if you've had a lot to deal with. I don't understand though. How can Angel become human? He's a Vampire, dead, no heart beat."  
  
"Yeah but he's unique, a Vampire with a soul. Don't worry, it was prophesied in some ancient, smelly text that Wesley has been translating. Giles I hate to ask but it is too late to get a motel so can I...?"  
  
"Yes of course. You can sleep in the guest room, it is made up."  
  
Cordelia picked up her bag and walked in the direction Giles had shown her. She opened the door to an airy, yet warm room. She dumped her bag unceremonily at the foot of the blanket chest and sat on the bed. The tears started trickling down her face and she didn't even try and stop them. He hands flew up to her face as she tried to stifle the wails.  
  
Giles heard the 20 year old crying outside her door. He felt his heart heave. Cordelia may never have thought herself to be a part of the Slayerettes but her held her as close to his heart as Buffy and Willow. He felt anger stir in him as he though of Angel taking another girls innocence.  
  
Meanwhile:  
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Angel collapsed into his bed, exhausted even through all the hours he had been sleeping. This time he would be able to sleep in peace. Darla wouldn't be waiting of him, to lead him away from his cause. She was gone, well the Darla he wanted was gone. Dru had taken way the greatest gift that he could have wished for her; a soul. Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia were all gone now, at his request. He didn't want them getting hurt by what he could do. Angel had dismissed Wesley and Gunn as if they were nothing more than employees, but they were so much more; they were his friends. Cordelia, his family, had left with them and now he had no one except Darla. Maybe if he could convinced her a soul was good he could perform Willows ritual and Darla would regain her soul. First he had to deal with Wolfram and Hart, they had to pay what they had done to Darla.  
  
Angel pulled himself up through the manhole in the basement of the Wolfram and Hart building, right next to the vault where he had stolen the scroll. He knew as soon as he was inside the building, alarms would be going off everywhere, but this had to be done. Angel made his way up the side fire stairs until he reached the floor where Lindseys office was. He waited until the security teams passed by the door before beginning his stealth-like prowl to Lindsey office. Lindseys office was empty and immaculately clean, almost like it had never been used, except for the smell of lies and deceit in the undisturbed air. Angel made his way over to Lindseys mahogany desk, free from files, and started pulling open drawers, which were locked until Angels strength opened them. They contained files under various code names but one in particular caught his eye.  
  
The beige file had 'SIGHTS' written in bold red letters across it. He carefully unwrapped the string fastener and opened the file. Cordelias figure greeted him with a plain white piece of paper with 'WEAPON' scrawled messily across it. Angel heard dulled footsteps on the carpet outside the office. They stopped and the lock to the door was pulled open.  
  
Lindsey stepped into the office and placed his briefcase on the side board to make a cup of coffee, his left hand not quite used to handling the heavy coffee pot creaked under the strain. He rounded his desk and went to sat down in his chair when a displaced skelf of wood caught his eye. He bent down until he was level with the drawer and saw the dents in either side of the wood. Lindsey gently coaxed the drawer out of it's runners to find it opened without a key. His hand sprung to the red button under his desk and after 20 seconds three security guards ran into the room.  
  
"Someone has been breaking into my desk. FIND THEM." He shouted, losing his indestructible cool for a few seconds before composing himself again.  
  
Back In Sunnydale:  
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Cordelia stirred in the early morning sunshine that filtered through the guest room window. She peaked through the door to see Giles talking to a black trench coat wearing male. For a brief moment her heart sailed, Angel had came grovelling back to her, but then she noticed the Platinum dyed hair and her heart filled with fear. She ran over to the bedside table and grabbed her stake. Cordelia tip-toed down the Moroccan styled hall and raised the stake up high. Cordelia lunged forward, aiming for the heart but the culprit turned at the last minute and the stake plunged into his stomach instead.  
  
"For Christ sake,. What the Bloody hell..." Spike looked down at the wooden object protruding form his being. "You ruined my shirt."  
  
"Well excuse me but you moved." Cordelia pouted.  
  
Giles moved in between the two, not before Cordelia high kicked the Vampire and sent him to his butt. "Spike, First aid kit." He pointed towards the open plan kitchen. "Cordelia, Spike is good."   
  
Cordelia let out a unlady-like snort. "How can Spike be good, he doesn't have a soul."  
  
"No he has the next best thing, a chip, that means he can't hurt people."  
  
Cordelia grabbed her sides in laughter while Spike wandered back through.  
  
"So what is Peaches secretary doing here and shacked up with you Giles, you should be ashamed she's 25 years your younger."  
  
Giles removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ha ha Spike. Cordelia is staying with me because..."  
  
"I'm on vacation. " Cordelia lied. "I'm not his *secretary*, I'm his Seer. So you can't hurt people." She sniggered in Spikes direction. "Well aren't we the whipped puppy then!" Spike lunged for the Seer and a crippling pain ripped through his head, like walking on hot coals. "Spike we share something in common, we both get a pain in the head from things we didn't ask for. But mine we will be gone soon."   
  
Giles looked at in a confused manner. "Spike, please leave! You've been fed now go. I'll see you at Magic shop."   
  
Spike swung a blanket around his shoulders and ran swiftly out the front door, yelping as the morning sun nipped at his heels as a reminder he didn't belong to this world.  
  
"Now Cordelia what is this about your visions soon disappearing? I thought you had them to help Angel." Giles asked now that Spike was out of his Vampire ear shot.  
  
"Well you see I was never meant to have these visions and the PTB aren't happy that Doyle passed them on to a meer mortal. Now that Angel sacked me then they are going to take them back. I did tell Doyle that if his gift was ever my gift I would return it but now I don't want to return it. He gave me them for a reason, I don't know what that is yet, but there was definitely a reason. And now Angel is just being an arse...sorry and idiot. Umph." She threw her arms in the air. "Can I help you out in the Magic store? Please it would give me something to do. I'm good with people and demons alike and I know lots about money from the business with...No I won't say his name."  
  
"Yes why not. You might be helpful while I train. You will have to put up with Xanders girlfriend, Anya, she can be a bit...Um..."  
  
"Tact-less?" Cordelia filled in for him, remembering the vengeance demon that had shown her a world so different from the one she now lived in. "Yeah I know, I used to be like that. It doesn't bother me, we've both moved on. I mean there was Christopher with the demon babies and then Lindsey the lawyer that was cute but turned out to be a demon pawn playing with things he doesn't understand." She looked at Giles who was looking confused again. Cordelia quickly closed her mouth when she realised she had been babbling again.  
  
Later:  
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Cordelia appeared out of her room wearing a pair of stone bleached bellbottom jeans, a cornflower blue tank top and a white cotton shirt was unfastened and blowing behind her. Her hair was down and bobbing around at her cheek. Giles was amazed at how mature and different she looked compared to the rich, bitchy, immature cheerleader he knew two years before.  
  
They headed out to the Magic shop to find that Anya had already opened up and was stocking the shelves. Giles was worried, to say the least, about the first meeting between the two. Anya was very protective over Xander and Cordelia was still hurt from the kiss with Willow.  
  
"Morning Anya. We have a visitor working in the shop. Anya you remember Cordelia, she used to go Sunnydale High with Buffy, Willow and Xander."  
  
Anya saw Cordelia enter the shop confidently and removed her sunglasses. "Your Xanders ex-girlfriend aren't you." Cordelia nodded in the ex-demons direction. "Well tough he's mine now! Aren't you the one that took my powers away with that stupid wish of yours?"  
  
"Yeah, sorry about that." Cordelia smile sweetly at Anya. "I know why don't I make us coffee? Giles your English like Wesley huh. You drink tea as well?"  
  
Cordelia headed through to the gallery kitchen just off the main shop room passing by the training room. She appeared back in the shop with two cups of tea and a cup of coffee for Anya just as the Slayerettes with a tall muscular looking man and a nervous looking blond girl entered the shop.  
  
"Hiya Giles, Anya, Cordelia...Cordelia! What are doing here?" The blonde asked staring straight at the Seer.  
  
"Buffy, always good with the welcomes. I'm on vacation from LA and what's a better place to visit than going from Hellmouth to another? Willow and someone, and someone else."  
  
"This is Tara and Riley." Willow filled in "Hiya Cordelia."  
  
Cordelia flashed a genuine smile in the Wicca direction. "Ah so this is Riley. I must say Buffy, your taste has changed. He is human this time huh?"  
  
Riley stepped forward to shake hands with the sarcastic Seer. "Riley Finn. You must be the Cheerleader from Sunnydale High. I recognised you from Buffys prom photo."  
  
"Yeah that's me. I flew the flock. I worked, work, for Angel in LA." She noticed Rileys smile fall. "So your the commando then, you caused quite a stir in LA. And Tara would be?"  
  
"Tara is my...girlfriend. She's a Wicca." Willow took Taras hand.  
  
Cordelia was taken aback slightly but soon recovered when she saw the love the two shared. "Well we're all full f surprises aren't we."  
  
Buffy turned to Giles, "You ready to train then? Riley is gonna join us. He's gonna help when the battle starts."  
  
"Oh great, demon rising, end of the world stuff. Just can't escape it can ya?" Everyone turned around and looked at Cordelia. "What?"  
  
"Cordelia, this is Buffys greatest battle since Adam, we need to be ready." Giles piped up while Riley just stared; not quite knowing what to make of Cordelia Chase, bitch extrodinaire.  
  
"I can help with research. I can phone Wesley and get him to look up some smelly texts for you. They should be done slaying my visions. I can get Wesley and Gunn to find Angel and tell him to get his evil butt over here."  
  
"NO!" Riley shouted out then quickly withdrew. "I mean we are better dealing with this one on our own plus you can have the Inisititives back-up if you need it.  
  
Buffy looked at Cordelia. "What do you mean 'Evil Butt?"  
  
"Not evil as in 'Grr, I'm Angelus and I'm gonna be bad and sarcastic.' Nah we've been there. He just been funny since...well he's been strange and broody."  
  
"What else is new for Dead-boy?" A familiar voice filled the small shop. "Hi Cordelia, nice to see you."  
  
"Xander!" Anya ran over to her dirty and dusty boyfriend. She threw her arms around him, looking in Cordelias direction. "So how was your day at the site? Did you make money to spend on me?"  
  
Cordelia winced slightly. Not because Anya and Xander looked good together but because the boy that had broken her heart had something she didn't: Someone to depend on. Her family was either in jail or obsessing over his dead, now risen Sire, while the other half of that duo was dead. She blinked back the tears.  
  
"Nice to see your fashion taste hasn't changed." Cordelia motioned at his dirty Hawaiian shirt.  
  
"Nice to know your still the bitch Cordelia." Xander flung back at him.  
  
Buffy grew impatient, she wanted to know about Angel and what Cordelia meant by strange but not while Riley was there. "Right Giles lets get going." The trio trouped through to the 'Danger Room.' while Xander and Cordelia sat bickering at each other, Anya sticking up for Xander when ever Cordelia got one up. Willow shared a seat with Tara, looking up new spells and texts on the Internet. An old high school friend might say that it was just like old times but it was anything but.  
  
10 pm in LA:  
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Angel lay awake, aware of the cold body beside him. Her arms draped across his chest as she came back into the world of the living where she didn't belong. Angel was constantly trying to fight back the memories of the night before. He had found out about the new business that Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn had set up and how well they were coping without him. Nobody needed or wanted him anymore, except Darla. But she didn't want him as Angel, she wanted her Darling Boy back; Angelus. Angel felt the pain shoot through his heart and tear at his very being. He shot out of bed and knelled in front of the window and looked out at the LA cityscape, the pain still tearing through him. He felt Darlas cool hands on his shoulders.  
  
"Don't worry, it will only hurt for a minute."  
  
This pain wasn't the same as the last time; after Buffy. This felt like a warning, not the final event. He turned around and faced Darla.  
  
"No it won't. It hurts forever. Now leave me alone. If I find you in my dreams or anywhere near me or my employees then I will hunt you down and stake you." He stood up and quickly dressed, walking out on his Sire. He only turned out when he called his demons name.  
  
"Angelus, they don't work for you anymore. You don't have anyone, all alone again." She snared.  
  
"We'll see."  
  
"Remember that your Seer is only human." Darla shouted to a retreating back.  
  
He jumped straight into the convertible and headed for the ex-watchers apartment downtown.  
  
  
  
Wesley opened the door to find the ragged looking Vampire, that up until a month ago he had considered his friend, standing before him.  
  
"Angel." Wesley said dryly. "What can I do for you?"  
  
"You can tell me where Cordelia is. I know she isn't in LA, I can fell it." The Watcher went to turn away. "Please Wesley, I want to make it up to all of you but I have to start with Cordelia."  
  
"She's in Sunnydale. I think you'll find her at Giles' house. Don't expect a warm welcome, she hates your guts right now."  
  
Angel climbed back into the convertible and put the hood up. He turned and headed out of the city onto the freeway bound for Sunnydale.  
  
Midnight At the Magic Box:  
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The Slayerettes were spread across various sections of the shop. Buffy, Riley and Giles were still training after a 30 minutes break, for the benefit of Riley and Giles. Willow was still on the Internet while Tara was in the spell department of the bookcases. Xander and Anya were making out in the kitchen and Cordelia sat at the table in the middle of the shop with a Latin text in front of her, feeling more detached than when she first arrived.  
  
The door to the shop opened, attracting the attention of everyone except Cordelia, who was lost in her dreams.  
  
"Angel!" Willow exclaimed.  
  
Cordelias head flew up. She looked briefly at Angel before rising from the table and walking away from his view. Buffy and Giles wandered slowly out of the Danger Room at the sound of Angels name, Riley stood behind them very wary.  
  
"Cordelia wait. I want to talk to you." Angel shouted out. He reached out to grab her arm but she slapped him away.  
  
"Don't touch me!" The Vampire recoiled "I don't want to talk to you." Cordelia went to walk into the kitchen but the picture of Xander and Anya stopped her. There was no way out except through the front door. She went to barge past Angel but he moved into her way. "LET ME GO!"  
  
"Cordelia, you're not running away from this one. Not this time. You always complain that I don't want to talk well now I do."  
  
"I wasn't the one who ran away. You sacked us remember, you walked out on us, on me." Cordelia bit on her lip. "Giles can we borrow the Training room to talk please, that way if I try and kick his ass I get a soft landing."  
  
Giles nodded. Buffys heart tore as Angel walked straight passed her, not registering her. As if reading her mind, Riley slid his protective and comforting arms around her thin waist. Shouts started to echo around the shop, emanating from the training room. The Slayerettes looked around the room uncomfortably.  
  
"Well I think that I will leave Cordelia to lock up tonight." Giles said beating a hasty retreat from the Magic Box.  
  
"Yeah Tara and I better get some sleep. We have...stuff to do tomorrow." Willow said with Tara following behind Giles.  
  
"Xander can we go? We can go back to your basement and have sex." Anya suggested and Xanders face lit up.  
  
"Yeah sure Anya, I've heard Cordelias insults before." They both turned and walked out of the shop leaving Buffy and Riley behind.  
  
"Buffy I have to go and report in. Are you coming?" Riley asked.  
  
"No I think I better stay here." She looked at Riley for a reaction. She saw his shoulders sag and then watched the light in his eyes disappear. "Well if Angel comes to his senses and tries to shut Cordelia up then I am the only one who could stop him doing serious harm. He did slap me when I was in LA."  
  
Buffy watched as Riley left the shop, his shoulders still sagging and the look in his eyes of distrust. She turned her attention back to the feuding couple.  
  
"Cordelia will you stand still? Your pacing is making this very hard."   
  
"Good, the harder the better. Who are you to come waltzing into MY hometown and DEMAND to speak to me. Well when I wanted to speak to you, you just brushed me off. Why should I talk to you."  
  
"Because we're family."   
  
That had her she stopped pacing and looked straight at the Vampire. She could see the pain and the misery behind his eyes. It was always there but this time it was so much worse. He was breaking apart.  
  
"Yeah some family. Wesley gets shot, I have demon babies and Powers That Be slide shows in my head and you...your a 250 year old Vampire who ran away with his Sire. You are the worse of all. You turned your back on us when we needed the most, when you needed us the most. That isn't family. Family is like when Doyle was alive."  
  
"OK I can see you still have issues over this but please let me explain. I don't expect you to understand..."  
  
"Understand what? The need to protect the ones you care most about, the ones that matter most in the world. The understanding when you are powerless to stop them taking the roads that shouldn't be walked down. Oh yeah I understand that, much."  
  
"Point taken. But this was different. I loved Da..."  
  
"I don't want to hear her name. Angel I mean it."  
  
"I loved her once. She was my world and I thought I had lost her the first time but then she was back and it was suddenly all that mattered. It took over everything. I was selfish, I'm sorry, but this mattered to me."  
  
Cordelia felt his words mirror hers as she ran through the memories and pains form Xander and Doyle.  
  
"Angel it is always about what matters to you. We're your family, we know it more than ever. She is evil, pure, incarnate evil. Why are you so blind and such an idiot over this?"  
  
"I'm not blind and she isn't evil. She had a soul and she knew what it was to care. I couldn't just walk away from that. She was like me."  
  
Cordelias heart soften as she saw the pain behind is eyes increase. The feeling of powerlessness and helplessness was all to real to her but Angel had only felt this when he was first soul and when Buffy died briefly.  
  
"She WAS like you, I think that is the point Angel. She is a hard-nosed bitch that has no soul, has no heart. You couldn't have just walked away, sure ya can. Take a stake, straight to the heart and poof," She motioned an explosion with her hands. "And you put one foot in front of the other and walk away. She doesn't want you as you are, she wants the sarcastic, sadistic killer called Angelus. And when she realises that she can't get to him then she will try killing you instead."  
  
"Cordelia she knows about the happiness curse and she also knows she can't be the one to turn me." He looked at a very confused Cordelia. "I slept with her and she couldn't turn me."  
  
Angel heard to sharp breaths been taken. He watched the confusion leave Cordelias eyes immediately and replaced by anger.  
  
"You what?" She shouted ready to slap him but he caught her hand in mid air. "Why?"  
  
"It was uncontrollable. I was low, everybody had abandoned me again and she was there."  
  
"How could you. She's a whore Angel, slept her way around most of the Polish army during WW2 I heard. What do you mean 'uncontrollable? You just happen to fall into bed with her and she had you handcuffed to the bed? Eww I don't even want to know? Did all that brooding take up the space in your brain for intelligence?...."  
  
Angel slowly walked away from his ranting ex-Seer, shaking his head. He turned back to her as she still shouted at his retreating back. The anger welled up inside him and his demon urged to be realised. "Why did I ever put up with you Cordelia?"  
  
"Doyle!" She whispered, almost inaudibly.  
  
He stopped dead at the mention of his dead friend. He gazed as Cordelia crumpled to the floor in exhaustion, a single tear falling down her face.  
  
"Doyle didn't want us to part that's why he gave me the visions. He didn't want a new Seer to come in and break up his family. But that seems to have happened anyway." She took in a deep breath. "Do you know how many times I cried myself to sleep at night when you went evil? How many times I played having to call Buffy to stake Angelus in my head? I was worried about you constantly. I couldn't go to auditions 'cause I would fluff my lines then my name would get around as a lousy actress. I even blubbed my way through the national that I had the day after you fired us."  
  
Angel marvelled remembering what Doyle had told him about a month after Cordelia joined them. Doyle had just walked away from an insult session with Cordelia, and he was off to buy her shopping.  
  
"Why do you let her talk to you like that?" Angel asked Doyle.  
  
"Look," Doyle pointed through to Cordelias office. She sat flicking through Vogue but never looking at the pages. Her 19 years displayed on her face show her innocence and maturity to the world she now lived in. "That's what you call a 'Cordy Moment' They are few and far between so you have to take when you can."  
  
That is what Angel had now. A Cordy Moment, her feelings laid bare, no Queen C, no walls of false tact, just Cordy. 


	2. At All Costs - Part 2

Disclaimer: Nothing Belongs to me except the plot which is now copywrite under Nuttyginger Glass Designs, just for conventience.  
  
At All Costs - Part Two  
  
He resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and banish what ever pain was making her cry, but he was that pain and he had still had to tell her the reason he was here.  
  
"Cordelia, I have something to tell you but I don't want you to be frightened."  
  
Cordelia stood up and straightened her shirt. "What could frighten me? Demons trying to take over the world, Vampires, eyes being gorged out? I don't think." She covered her mouth in a pretend yawn. "Been there, done that."  
  
"Someone might be trying to kill you." He studied her closely for a reaction. "Did you hear what I said? Someone or something is trying to kill you."  
  
"Yeah, I'm not deaf you know. People try and kill us everyday, they are called Wolfram and Hart and they haven't done very well at it yet."  
  
"Not US, YOU. But don't worry they won't get near you."  
  
"Why would they be trying to kill me, I'm nothing but a Seer, not even the PTB like me." Cordelia stumbled backward and Angel reached out to catch her.  
  
Buffy now stood at the door, watching the intimacy, the familiarity between the two, her heart taking another beating. Her brain taking in the words and the scene that was taking place in her training room. His arms as they reached out, almost automatically, as Cordelia stumbled over the padded mats. The way he now sat on the mats, stroking her hair, soothing her sobs. Waiting for her to speak. This was coming from her true love, her immortal. He was sitting there with someone he hardly knew and she hated, in his lap. This was too surreal for her but she couldn't turn away.  
  
"Why do they want to kill me? I thought that they wanted Angelus." Cordelia whimpered.  
  
"I guess they finally figured out that wasn't going to happen. They are trying to destroy me in the most painful way possible, by taking those I love and hold dear."  
  
Cordelia sprung up out of his lap as if he were on fire. "Then it isn't me that you need to protect, it's Buffy. They will start with Buffy and your Sire hates Buffy as well. I say double whammy, much."  
  
"Cordelia I went to Wolfram and Hart, stole some files. Here." He handed the same file he had taken from Lindseys drawer. "They are all pictures of you. Don't you see? Now the Oracles are gone and Whistler isn't around, you are my only connect to the PTB. Take that away and I have no fight. Also we were best friends, we share a link. I knew you weren't in LA and I knew to find you here. The visions are that link, you mean a great deal to me, Lindsey knows that. Do I have to spell it out to you?" Angel asked growing impatient.  
  
Cordelia pretended to think about it. "Um...Yes." Angel went to open his mouth. "No don't bother I get the picture." She giggled at the unintended joke. "God they even took pictures of me without any make-up on. So what do we do?"  
  
"I think it would be better if we stayed here a while, I mean who is better to protect you than a souled Vampire, a Slayer, A commando, and the Slayettes? I'll get the mansion sorted and we can stay there. Wesley and Gunn are going to stay in LA, let us know about Wolfram and Hart plus they have to fight your demon visions. Cordelia, I'm sorry about letting you down and turning my back on you. I never ever wanted to hurt you."  
  
Cordelia reached out and lightly touched him on the arm. "I know, if I had known for a second that she was going to cause this much trouble I would have shackled you into the basement and went and staked her myself, or got Wesley to do it. I should have made you talk to me instead of being so self obsessed. I tell you what, you take me out for a cappuccino and a Danish and we'll call it quits."  
  
"Deal." Angel smiled for the first time in a month.  
  
"These mats are very comfy though."  
  
Buffy heard Cordelia and Angel climb to their feet, their feet padding about on the mats as they pulled each other up. She scurried across the wooden floor and into the closet where the weapons were kept, trying to be as quite as possible. Buffy listen as Angel and Cordelia left the shop with Cordelia saying. "Have you heard about Spike?" She slumped down the door missing the cross bow and the silver broadsword on the way down. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging herself in a bid the control her body as it racked with sobs.  
  
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"So he tries to go for me but this pain goes through his head and he jumps back. The look on his face was priceless as he sat there on his butt." Cordelia laughed.  
  
Angel sat and listened, laugh were necessary but smiling genuinely everytime her smile reminded how he had nearly lost her. Her smile faltered slightly but Angel saw it.  
  
"Cordelia, what's up? There's something on your mind."  
  
Her smile was gone now. "I was just thinking what if Wolfram and Hart do get to me, what will happen to your redemption?"  
  
"TPTB will probably send me another Seer. Cordelia you are safe with me, no one will hurt you. You do realise that my redemption won't happen in your life time."  
  
"Yeah I know, but I wanna help as much as I can. I seen what you were like when Doyle died. If it hadn't been for the visions, my audition, Wesley, and me getting kidnapped, you would have wallowed in guilt and pity till you staked yourself. You have to promise me if, when, I die you won't grieve or wallow, be happy. Celebrate that the world is down another crappy actress and that you are finally rid of your whinny Seer." She half laughed, looking into his eyes.  
  
Angel placed his hand over hers. "You amaze me so much. Thank-you."  
  
  
Buffy watched form the shadows, her heart almost breaking in two again. It had taken her so long to mend, the whole summer, almost a year. In the end she decided to give Angel what he wanted for her, a normal life. It didn't quite work out that way but she was happy, until now. She saw the closeness the two shared and she was jealous. She yearned for that feeling again. Riley had been distant from her since he had found out about Angel, he had changed. The Vampire bite on his neck had never healed probably and when ever she had went to see him in his dorm she could smell Vampire all around her. She turned back the cafe scene but they were gone.  
  
  
Angel pushed the heavy oak door, sealed shut by the rain and the Ivy that had claimed it since he had left nearly three years ago. No one else had been there in that time, no one would dare enter the Lair of Angelus. Angel held up the droopy Ivy as Cordelia passed through the doorway and into the huge expanse of the entrance hall. She sniffed the air.  
  
"Eww, it's smelly in here. You never had air freshener in 17 hundred and odd then? I guess not."  
  
"Cordelia, the house hasn't been used in three years. Expected it to be musty in some places."  
  
"You really like he old, ruin look don't you? I like new and fresh and non-wood word furniture. Dennis would love it here, so much to tidy." She looked in a distant manner.  
  
Angel disappeared for a second and came back holding a mahogany and silver box. "Here open it."  
  
Cordelia peeled back the lid like Pandorras Box and a whoosh of air flew passed her ears. The wind then began spinning around the room, blowing dust everywhere.  
  
"Dennis!" Cordelia cried out as if the ghost would hug her back. "Angel how did.."  
  
"He was creating a commotion at your apartment and the police were called. Kate called me since it was your apartment and Dennis was playing Jazz at full blast on your stereo. So I performed a Wandering spell on him and here he is."  
  
"You knew that I would take you back, I mean that I would forgive you didn't you?"  
  
"No I didn't but I didn't know how long you were going to be in Sunnydale and we dead guys stick together."  
  
"Dennis find the biggest room in the house, it will be mine and tidy it up. Fresh sheets, everything. Then tidy the kitchen. I will start on the living room. You," She pointed at Angel. "Go find a room, the sun will be up soon and you'll need to help Buffy in the evening. She has some sort of big battle coming up and she needs help by the sounds of things. I don't know, give her all the super powers in the world and she still needs a man to sort out her demons." Cordelia shook her head.  
  
Angel smiled and walked out in to the bedroom area of the mansion. He went into one room and as soon as he entered it, Dennis started whizzing around, changing the sheets, pulling down the shutters against the advancing sun.  
  
Angel lay here staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. He could hear Cordelia rustling downstairs. It was a comforting sound, it meant she was safe and that was all that mattered right now. if he concentrated hard enough he could hear her heart beating.  
  
Cordelia felt him move through the house, she still sat there, tracing the blackened outline near the fireplace where Angel had fell back to earth. She felt cold hands on her shoulders.  
  
"God Angel, how many times do I have to tell you to hum when your creeping up on people?"  
  
"I don't hum Cordelia."  
  
"I'll buy you a cat collar and padlock it to your neck, I swear."  
  
"I'll hum." He said quickly "Anyway, why haven't you gone to bed?"  
  
"I haven't read a bit of my book yet. I can't sleep if I don't." Cordelia whined then pouted.  
  
"Well if you check the library, I'm sure you'll find it there."  
  
"Nah this on was on-line and no computer means no Internet so no reading. You really should have this place modernised. I mean the minimalist look was good, like last year and it really doesn't go with this Out-Of-The-Ark look."  
  
Angel turned and walked out of the living room into a room off the hall. He came back carrying an ancient looking book in his hands. He blew the layer of thick dust off the top of it and opened if up. He motioned Cordelia to come over to the couch and sit beside him. She lowered herself into Angels lap and he pulled her across him. She nestled nicely of his chest, rubbing her face into the comforting feel of his soft woollen jumper. He opened the book and turned to the first yellowed page.  
  
"What's it called?" Cordelia mumbled.  
  
"I can't remember, but it is set in Ireland around about Liams time. My mother used to read it to me when I was a boy to help me sleep." Cordelia adjusted herself into him again and he began to read. "The rolling hills greeted me home again. The light shone down as God announced my arrival back to the Green Isle. I could see her waiting for me on the dockside, her long raven hair blowing in the wind, her eyes alight in the sunshine. My patient beauty was opened armed for me..." Angel looked down to find Cordelia, with her eyes closed, her breathing equal and shallow, her eyes fluttering in her sleep. He had himself another Cordy Moment. He had seen this before but each time it would be more beautiful and innocent than the last. Her nose twitching in the air, the blood pumping continually around her body, her heart beat slowing as she was drawn deeper into sleep. Doyle had seen this one as well.   
  
*Angel pulled out the key to the door to the office. The dead-bolt wouldn't be on because Cordelia always left it off incase ' A demon popped up in front of her' and she had to make a quick getaway. He push the door quietly open, not seeing a sign of Cordelia anywhere. Doyle tip-toed up behind him and peeped in over his shoulder.  
  
"She probably went home man. You know how she hates waiting for us." Doyle said in his cheeky Irish voice.  
  
Dolye stepped forward and stumbled over his feet as a large ancient text stood in his way. Angel reached out and grabbed his jacket before he had a chance to fall flat on his face. He peered around the door to the black client couch Cordelia had forced him to buy and there she was. Her hair was spread out over the chair arm, a blanket draped loosely across her lower body. Doyle stared at the sleeping beauty before him, in awe.  
  
"You better wake her up 'Cos if I do it she get pissed at me and after that battle I couldn't handle a pissed secretary." Doyle asked, backing off towards the coffee machine.  
  
Angel crouched down beside her sleeping form and rested his hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Come on Cordelia, we're home. Time to wake up now and go home." He shook her softly.  
  
Cordelia stirred slightly and her eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the lamp on her desk that was now on. She tried to focus on something then swatted Angel hand away before turning over muttering some obscenity in her sleep laden voice.  
  
"Beautiful isn't it?" Dolye whispered beside Angel, a cup of nuked coffee in his hands. "That is what every man wants to come home too."  
  
"I don't understand why you don't just ask her out or at least tell her how you feel."   
  
"Rejection! I don't want the rejection plus I'm a half demon and demons + Cordelia don't mix."  
  
He was gone three days later leaving her broken heart in his wake.*  
  
Angel stirred from his sleep, sensing another presence in the room. He looked to his left to see Buffy standing there, a small clear tear running down her cheek.  
  
"Buffy! Cordelia wake up. Come on princess." Angel shook her lightly, his sleepy voice full of Irish tone.  
  
"Doyle?" Answered a drowsy Cordelia, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.  
  
"No Cora, it's only me, Angel." He watched the hope quickly fade in her face to be replaced by warmness and kind, something he had never seen in Darlas eyes. "Buffy is here."  
  
Cordelia lifted her head lazily from Angels chest and looked over at Buffys hurt face. "I'll get the coffee then, you do have a coffee machine here don't you." Cordelia climbed off the couch and brushed past Buffy towards the kitchen. She stopped short of the door as Dennis started up the portable coffee machine in the barren kitchen. She leaned against the door frame and listened as the two ex-lovers spoke.  
  
"Buffy, I didn't expect you this early in the morning." He looked at his watch. "10am, shouldn't you be at classes?"  
  
"No, I have them this afternoon." She looked away briefly. "I shouldn't have come." She went to walk off but Angel grabbed her arm.  
  
"No stay, we have to talk."  
  
"Yeah I guess we should talk. I guess you and Cordelia are...I'm OK with that. I mean she is the bitch but I have Riley and I'm happy for you. I mean it, I really am." Buffy babbled on.  
  
"I meant talk about the battle that Giles was talking about at the Magic Box but we can talk about something else if you like. Me and Cordelia aren't together." He wrinkled his nose slightly at the thought. "She isn't mine to have, she loved Doyle too much and she is my Seer, my best friend. There isn't anyone except..."  
  
"Darla." She saw his shocked face. "I heard you and Cordelia talking about her at shop. I thought you staked her, I saw you."  
  
"Wolfram and Hart raised her again to get at Angelus, put Wesley in hospital and Cordelia in the nuero-phyc ward. She came back to town with a bang. I went off the rails for a while but I came to my senses in time to stop me losing the most important things to me."  
  
"Oh I see, I take it you did stake her huh?" Buffy sat down on the couch beside Angel.  
  
"No!" Buffy stared at him. "I'm not as strong as you when it comes to killing the people you loved." He realised what he said but it was too late. "Buffy I didn't mean to...What about this demon?"  
  
"It's big, it bad and it's very ugly, not to mention the bad breath. It's half human and can only be killed when it's I demon form. That only happens on a full moon. There are way to many 'only' in that sentence. Giles recite a few binding spells to hold him while I stab him to death with a silver dagger and the a dissipation spell to make sure he never rises again. I've faced worse, like Adam."  
  
"But Giles told Cordelia that he was your greatest battle since Adam."  
  
"You know Giles, always big with the demons, he just got worse now he has no job. He really should have thought about that when he blew up the school."  
  
Cordelia turned back to the kitchen and three cups of coffee sat on the counter. "Thanks Dennis." She mumbled before heading back into the lions pit.  
  
"Here you go." She handed the cups out. "So is there anything I can help with?"  
  
"No Cordelia, you aren't doing anything. What if something was to happen to you are Wolfram and Hart decide to pay a little visit? I thought about it and you are going to be at the Magic Box while me and Buffy go to fight. I asked Willow and Tara will be there with you to perform a barrier spell so that no one came get in 'till she drops it."  
  
"Well nice to know I am still in control of my own life. God Angel who gave you chains and told you to tie me up?" Cordelia moaned.  
  
"You seen the photos, someone has been watching you. Now let it go."  
  
Cordelia sat down on the other couch and huffed, sticking her tongue out at Angel;. Buffy sniggered.  
  
"Cordelia don't let the wind change or you'll never be an actress."  
  
Later:  
`````  
  
The three friends walked into the Magic Box to find a wide array of weaponry sitting out, gleaming. Riley sat at one of the desks, dressed up in his camouflage and a phazer blaster sitting beside him. Willow was mixing herds in a pestle and mortal while Tara watched her, twirling a piece of her blonde hair in her fingers. Giles was still sitting in the same position that Buffy had left him in earlier after Angel and Cordelia left. He was sitting behind the counter checking and double checking the incantations.  
  
"Cordelia," Tara said. "So it looks like I get too be your baby-sitter tonight. I'm not even getting paid for it." The normally nervous girl felt comfortable in Cordelias company.  
  
"Don't remind me, I get to stake him later for it." Cordelia pointed off in Angels direction.  
  
"Right troops are we ready to go?" Xander announced now that he had arrived.  
  
The Slayerettes headed off out of the door and Tara dead-blotted it behind them and began chanting quietly in Latin. A blue glow appeared around the door, showing that Tara had been successful. The two girls sat talking about Cordelia and Xander then it shifted to what had happened when Oz had came back, a painful subject that was soon dropped. The clock struck 1am, the gang having been gone about 30 minutes. There was a delicate knock at the door and then they tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.   
  
"Hello, is anyone there." A female voice asked.  
  
Cordelia walked up to the door and peered through the frosted glass. A tall woman about Cordelias height stood there, her ginger tresses up behind her head. She was wearing a light blue, high-necked jumper and stone coloured cargo pants. Her English voice prominent as she shouted through the glass again.  
  
"Cordelia are you there?" Cordelia took a step back from the door. "Cordelia, my name is Isabelle. Wesley sent me to help protect you."  
  
Cordelia whispered back to Tara to drop the spell and the light blue haze disappeared. She opened the door to find the girl with a smile on her face. She stepped passed Cordelia, uninvited.  
  
"So how do you know Wesley? He hasn't really mentioned you." Cordelia asked.  
  
"Does Wesley ever talk about anyone at The Watchers Council? That's how I know him. Watchers rarely talk about who they know incase the secret comes out. We are a tight-knit organisation, well used to be. Wesley thought I might be of use because I was a bodyguard to the important Council Members until I left 2 years ago."  
  
"Great now I have a Wicca and a bodyguard to baby-sit me. So do you want a coffee Isabelle?"  
  
"No, I think it would be better if I took you back to the mansion. It's more secure and easier to defend."  
  
"Oh, OK." Cordelia grabbed her purse and headed out of the door. She turned back around because Tara hadn't followed. "Are you coming Tara?" She watched as the young Wicca bit on her bottom lip.  
  
"Nah I'll wait for Willow and let them know where you are."  
  
Meanwhile At The Battlefield, aka the Cemetery:  
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Angel was in full vamp mode as Buffy high kicked and high rolled the demons ferocious lunches. Willow stood still, her eyes closed, chanting while Giles leant against a gravestone, out cold. A trickle of blood gave away the nature of the mans peaceful look. Angel felt a buzzing in his head as he felt his link shift. Cordelia was on the move, moving out of the powerful magic he had sensed earlier. The tingling took him off guard as the demon pummelled him against a crypt wall. He could hear Buffys frantic shouting.  
  
"Angel come on. Willow can't hold on much longer." He felt a slap to his lower jaw. "For Christ sakes Angel, this is no time to be daydreaming."  
  
Angel came to his senses and swung his axe high in the air, bringing it crashing down on the demons head. Buffy ran to catch a collapsing Willow as a resounding crack rang through the air, the demon slumping down dead before disintegrating. Angel picked up Giles and slung him over his shoulder while Buffy helped Willow back o her feet. He hurried back to the Magic Box to find Cordelia.   
  
The door swung back angrily, almost off it's hinges. Tara leapt back in fright, her mind trying to form an incantation to protect herself. Angel placed Giles carefully in the chair before looking quickly around the shop to find Cordelia no where insight.  
  
"Tara where is Cordelia?" Angel asked, growing impatient.  
  
"Oh, Wesley sent one of his Watcher friends, Isabelle, to protect Cordy and she took her back to the mansion, safer she reckoned."  
  
"One of Wesley's friends? Wesley doesn't have any friends. I didn't even tell him about Co...." Angel trailed off, realisation suddenly hitting him.  
  
"What is it?" Buffy asked as she placed a light hand on his shoulder.   
  
He sprung around at the pulsing touch. "Wolfram and Hart!" He managed to shout before running out the door towards the mansion.  
  
Angel jumped into the convertible and sped off to the mansion, the car door not even closed. He roared towards the ancient house. As he neared the house he couldn't feel Cordelia and he couldn't smell her scent in the breezeless airless night. He could smell fear, a terrifying fear. His unbeating heart filled with dread. He noticed a white piece of paper daggered to his door, Angel pulled it out with a force, growing in anger and worry. He read the note over and over again.  
  
'YOU WERE TOLD YOU COULDN'T PROTECT HER. YOU KNOW WHAT WE WANT. MEET ME AT THE OLD MILL AT MIDNIGHT TOMORROW, NO SLAYER.'  
  
Angel turned away, his black trench coat flaring in the wind as it blew across the barren street. He lifted his head up to the wind but there was no smell of Cordelias vanilla and strawberry essence. He jumped back into the convertible and fled back to the Magic Box.  
  
A black figure peeled out of the darkness at the side of the mansion and a cackle filled the air. Her ginger hair blew in the wind, as she carefully stood down wind from the vampires car.   
  
  
Angel threw the Magic Box door open and let out an involuntary growl in anger. The 7 occupants turned around to face him.  
  
"Angel I thought you were going back to the mansion." Buffy asked. Riley turned to her a surprised look on his face.  
  
"I was, I did but then I found this." He trust the torn white note into Giles hands. "Someone's got her and I want to know who."  
  
Giles scratched the bridge of his nose and tutted slightly. "Well Angel, I don't know how you expect me to find her."  
  
"You can do a Reversing Spell, to see who wrote it. I don't know the spell but I'm sure you or Willow could help me." His face turned from anger to pain on his face. "Please Giles she was a part of you."  
  
"Right, me and Willow will look in to the spell, I think there is one but it is pretty powerful. Angel, go find Spike, he will help you but be careful it's near sun rise and you are no go to Cordelia as ashes. Buffy, can you go and 'ask' Willie and Riley could you ask your soldier people if they have seen anything different. These kind of people like to frequent down at the docks."   
  
Willow was already in the back of the shop looking through their ancient text while Tara searched out front. Giles hurried to the phone in his office to ask some past associates if they could help or had seen anything but they didn't know anything or they were scared.  
His head was still buzzing from where the demon had back-handed him against the gravestone.  
  
Meanwhile:  
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Cordelia shifted her weight on the cold, stone floor. Her head throbbed, emanating from where someone had thumped her head with something blunt. It was all coming painfully back to her. She had walked out of the Magic Box with that girl, Isabelle, and then they had walked past a dark alley. Two men had grabbed her while Isabelle just laughed. She had tried to cry out for her help but she felt the butt of a gun come into contact with her head and it all went black. Here she was, in a cold, danky basement, no doubt with a huge bruise on her neck. She let out a sigh, she had been here before when the Impate Demon kidnapped her and Wolfram and Hart tried to sell her. The worse thing you could do is panic. The icy feeling of the metal rattled around her wrists, leaving red marks. She sat back, thinking of the last 24 hours. She had stabbed Spike and found out he was good, as in the not evil sense. She had found out Willow was now playing for the other side and most importantly she had brought Angel back from the brink. Not Buffy or Wesley and his nonsense scroll, but her, Cordelia. When he had shown her the pictures she had been freaked out but I all seemed OK when Angel said he would protect her. The conversation flashed through her mind again. 'Also we were best friends, we share a link.....The visions are that link, you mean a great deal to me.' The link? She has begun to know where he was and what he was doing even if she was at an audition in the city, she could feel his nightmares and peace while he slept but ever since he had gone the link had thinned. Cordelia rested her back against the damp wall and took as deep beathe. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on his face, his body movements as she silently watched his Tai Chi. She searched her mind but she couldn't find anything.   
  
"Damn!" She slammed her fists against the floor in frustration, rattling the chains.   
  
*She sat back again and tried to hone in on one memory, a happy thought. She found one, hidden away in her private thoughts. Cordelia and Angel were staying at her apartment after the original A.I blew up and they were sitting on the couch/Angels bed when he wasn't demon hunting. Great Expectations was playing on the screen in front of them, the end credit starting to roll up. Angel complained all the way through it that Charles Dickens had never intended for Pip to live in a shack house and that there was never a dock at the back of the big house because it was set in Yorkshire not Florida. Cordelia let out a cat-like yawn and settled back into the couch. Angel laughed inwardly at Cordelias unfeminine show and pulled her body closer to his. He could feel her warmth and increasing heartbeat. She sat with her head resting on his chest, comforted by his unbeating heart, he gently stroked her long, brown hair. There, they sat until Wesley showed up the next day and the frantic rust began to make it look like they had slept separately.*  
  
Cordelia could see him, walking through the streets back to the mansion, she felt Angelus delighting after the battle. Cordelia could feel his worry and his fear, his worry about her. Then she felt the worse of all Angels feelings, the guilt and the regret over all the deaths and pain he caused as the demon with and angelic face. 


	3. At All Costs - Part Three

Disclaimer: It ain't mine, well the plot is as is Isabelle and they are copywirte to me @ Nutty Glass Designs. They belong to Joss!  
  
Feedback :gingernutt@lycos.com  
  
Wolfram and Hart have decided that Angel and Angelus are too much trouble so they set out on his destruction. They have to choose their weapons with precession.  
  
Summary: Sort of set after Reunion and mixed in a bit of Epiphany but it then follows a totally different timeline from the episodes then I've added some stuff in to add interest!!!  
  
At All Costs - Part Three  
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Angel felt Cordelias expressions creep into his being. The familiar feeling of her warmth and control filled him with a temporary peace. Then the feelings he loved so much about his Seer filtered away. The feelings were replaced by fear so think he could almost smell it on the air. She was calling to him, wishing he was there. He felt her pain as something cut into her wrists and the droplets of blood snake down her hands. Angel tasted the salty tears that were falling form her hazel eyes. He felt himself almost crazy with worry and grief. He had made a promise to Cordelia when Doyle had died that he had lost Doyle and it wouldn't happen again. It had happened again.  
  
Spike felt his Sire stiffen beside him, his features twisted in worry. A can drifted across the street in the lightening sky as Angel connected his foot with the can sending it tumbling through the breeze.  
  
"Man, compressing metal isn't going to bring her back. What is it with you and humans?" Spike asked, picking up the battered can.  
  
"She isn't just a human. She's my Seer. She is what she is because of me. You would never understand what I mean."  
  
"Spike flashed his mind to the person that occupied his thoughts for most of the night and his day-sleep. "Nah man I would never understand." He dropped the can to the ground and stamped on it, flatting it flat. "I must admit though. Cordelia is a tasty number. You got the lucky end of the stick when you left here didn't you."  
  
"No I left behind my first true love. lost my first best friend and caused a 19-year-old girl to have visions from a higher force that show sick sights. I don't think that I got the lucky end of the stick at all. I mean then there is Wesley. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind having him around but he tries to hard and bickers with Cordelia." Angel let out an unneeded sigh.  
  
"Angel, you and Buffy...Are you finally finished. I mean your not gonna stay here and lose your soul again. Angelus always knew how to cause evil chaos but he is a pain in the ass when it comes to the Slayer." Spike looked hesitantly at his Sire.  
  
"I couldn't come back to Buffy even if I wanted to. I have the curse and then there's Soldier Boy Riley. I tried to see Buffy before and he tried to kill me, again. And then I have to think about LA. I am a Warrior to the PTB, that is who Cordelia gets the visions from. I couldn't just leave, curse or no curse. She needs me and in a funny way I need her."  
  
"Angel, man, you sound like your a whipped boy again. These Sunnydale have a way of just winding you around their finger. Riley is a wanker really. He comes in all tough but Buffy has to save his ass most of the time, you should watch them train. She kills him everytime, so does Giles."  
  
Angel opened the marked door to the mansion and stared at the scene that befell him. Papers were scattered all over the open plan living room, the lamps had been knocked from their tables. The cushions to the sofa were littered up the stairs in front of them. His book that he had read to Cordelia was stewed across the stone floor, the mirrors all turned around.  
  
"Looks like they tore the place apart." Spike picked up Cordelias broken compact. "And they forgot to take her make-up, she will be pissed."  
  
"DENNIS!!!!" Angel shouted through the house, his voice echoing around the great expanse of the house.   
  
A clear, post-it note covered form floated meekly out of the corner of the room and stopped in front of the two Vampires. Spike looked more confused than anything else.  
  
"What is that? A new demon?" Spike started to laugh at the sprit in front of him. Dennis went to lift him up but he was stopped by an animalistic growl from Angel.  
  
"Dennis get this place tied up then we are going to talk dead guy to dead guy."  
  
The post-it notes moved, making it look like Dennis had hung his head. Spike stared in amusement as the room began to swirl again. The lamps were back on the stand and the papers all stacked in a pile on the coffee table. The cushions floated slowly back to the couch and were put back in place.  
  
With the room returned to it's almost normal state Angel sat down with a pad and a pen and sat it on the table. The post-it notes floated slowly over to the pad and picked up the pen.  
  
"G.E.T. T.H.E.S.E. T.H.I.N.G.S. O.F.F. M.E!" Was scribbled harshly across the crisp white page.  
  
"Spike, pull them of for him please and stop laughing." Spike turned to argue but Angel cut him off with a glare. "Dennis why did you wreak my home?"  
  
"I. W.A.S. B.O.R.E.D. W.H.E.R.E.'S C.O.R.D.E.L.I.A?"   
  
"Dennis, um, Cordelia has been kidnapped." The papers started to swirl around the room again and a file was tossed into Angels lap.  
  
"Y.O.U M.E.A.N. T.H.I.S? W.O.L.F.R.A.M. A.N.D H.A.R.T?" The pictures began to spread out.  
  
"I tried to warn her, I even left her with a Wicca but they tricked her. Dennis I'm so sorry."  
  
The pen began tapping ferociously on the table. Spike grabbed it and flung it at the spot in the air where he though Dennis was only to watch it fall and skid along the floor. He felt a cold shiver run up the back of his neck and jumped off the couch.  
  
  
"That bloody ghost is mad. Can't you exorcise it or put it in a can?" Spike yelled to an amused Angel.  
  
"No, he's family and Cordelia would stake me if I even tried it." He shifted his gaze to the chair opposite the table. "Dennis, I need you help to find Cordelia. It's breaking day and I still haven't found her. The note said I was to meet them at the old mill at midnight. Poetic huh. I need you to go and check it out of me, see if you can find Cordelia or even who has been there. Smells, footprints, everything."  
  
The ghost flew around the room and headed out towards the door. The opening then the slamming of the large marked door signalled that Dennis the ghost was off to track down his best friend.  
  
"So what is so special about the cheerleader? I mean I give she is a stunner but she hasn't got much up top has she." Spike said.  
  
Angel growled out loud at Spikes insensitive comment. "She's my Seer Spike. She is helping me on my road to redemption, not that I expect you to understand. The only thing you ever cared about was Dru and now she's in LA toying with Darla and you have no one."  
  
Spike lifted his fist to Angel but lowered as Angel looked at him with a passive face. "Listen peaches. I do care for someone but she's way off limits and she might ruin my reputation."  
  
Angel laughed. "I didn't think you had one anymore now your helping Buffy and the Slayettes. There is nothing we can do until Dennis gets back or the sunsets. Why don't you take my room and I'll take the master bedroom."  
  
"Ah and I was enjoying our little bonding session you know." Spike sniggered.  
  
Angel opened the door to what was meant to be Cordelia's room and let her scent wash over him. Her trolley case was still sitting in the corner with only her make-up sitting out on the antique dressing table. He dressed down, folding each item and placing it on the hair beside her bed. He climbed in, the softness comforting against his skin, and flicked off the bedside lamp and sat upright. Angel closed his eyes and tried to focus in on where Cordelia might be. The hazy slowly crept in like it did everytime but it didn't clear like usual it was just a black pit of fog. He couldn't feel her, she wasn't there. That meant to things to him: Either she was unconscious or she was...not that was not a thought his head would entertain. She had to be alive, he had too much to say to her, too much to show her before she died. Angel climbed out of bed and stood in a still stance. His arms moved out in front of him, sweeping through the air. His mind focused and started to empty. A cold shudder ran through his cool body as he found a buzzing in the back of his head, a dull ache. He slowly opened his eyes in the coolness of the room he found himself in. A small moan emanated form the corner of the room, Angel turned to face what ever made the desperate noise. All the years of murder and pain he had caused couldn't have prepared him for the sight that befell his eyes.  
  
  
Cordelia lay in the corner, chains round her wrists binding her to the wall. Her hair at the back of her head was matted from her blood. Angel took in an unneeded breath and moved slowly towards his Seer. She looked up slowly and her eyes opened ever so slightly.  
  
"Angel?" She whispered before her head hit her chest.  
  
Angel felt himself being pulled back from Cordelia and he found himself back in his room. The empty black in front of him was back and he felt his muscles tense back up as he climbed back into the comfort of the cool covers. He drifted off into a troubled sleep, surround by Cordelias smell.  
  
Meanwhile:  
``````````  
Cordelia felt the black clouds swirling around her mind, filling every corner, heading for the centre of her head. She tried to fight them but they were too powerful for her then she had felt it. Angel had been there, she had saw his face, heard him take a breath but the she had blacked out again. The black clouds were so intense that she could only keep herself wake for a few minutes at a time and when she had came back around again, he was gone. Cordelia couldn't let the clouds claim her again, she had to let Angel find her again. 'Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.' She yelled at herself. A smile tried to crept it's way across her face as she remembered on of her favourite memories.  
  
* "God Angel will you stop standing on my toes please." Cordelia yelled at the stotic vampire. "Sorry." She said. "Let try again."  
  
She placed her hands in the air waiting to feel Angels cool finger tips on them again. Instead he stood away from her, his hand around the back of his neck showing he embarrassed.  
  
"OK so you're not getting this modern stuff, or not your not getting how to dance full stop." She moved over to her portable getoblaster and flicked through her CD's and then through Angel's sparse collection. "What decade did you like the best, I mean music wise."  
  
"Um.. I liked the 60's and the 70's the best, they really knew how to make music then. Well I prefer Bach myself but I want to learn how to dance not waltz so the 60's and 70's."  
  
"Well I'm not getting into a leisure suit and I refuse to 'Strut My Stuff.' so how about the 60's?"  
  
Angel nodded his approval so Cordelia slipped a Beatles CD into her player a moved back towards Angel. She felt the beat take over her body as she pulled Angel in close to her. He tried to keep himself at arms length but Cordelia was too lost in the beat to notice the song was ending. The calming tones of a guitar filled the room as 'Yesterday' can through the speakers. Cordelia looked up and began to pull away but Angel grabbed her hands softly and snaked them around his neck.  
  
"Now this I can dance to."  
  
Angel moved his feet in-between hers, rocking her body with the beat hidden in the music, his face buried in the nape of her neck. Cordelia let her fingers lose, playing with the silky hairs at the back of his neck. The lights in the room seemed to dim and the words of the song were blocked by her own heartbeat. They softly moved around the room as one, each counteracting each others moves. The song drifted away and the CD stopped playing leaving the two dancers at a loss for words but smiling happily.*  
  
The black clouds swirled in again as the memory ended. She let out a sigh in pain and in happiness, the song filling her head again, flowing out of mouth in an effort to hold onto it for a few more moments.  
  
"Yesterday...All my troubles seemed so far away...Now it looks like their here to stay...I believe in yesterday." She laughed weakly at the irony of the words, causing her to cough. The taste of blood caused her to gag before swallowing it back down. "Suddenly...I'm not half the man I used to be...There's a shadow hanging over me...Oh yesterday came so suddenly."  
  
The clouds finally claimed their victim once again and Cordelia felt her world go fuzzy then black.  
  
Back At The Mansion:  
```````````````````  
Angel sprung upright, his eyes open in terror. The words echoed around the room like they had been said in that very space. He jumped out of the twisted bed covers, his head shooting from side to side looking for Cordelia. Angel soon realised that she wasn't there but the words still rung as clear as day. His attention was drawn away from the room by the door bursting open and a fully clothed Spike standing in front of him banging is hand off of the side of his head.  
  
"God man couldn't you wear something more descent?" Spike exclaimed staring at Angel dressed only in his boxers.   
  
"Spike what the hell do you want?" Angel growled angrily.  
  
"Your bloody cheerleader is sending me freak messages. Why the hell did I ever get involved in you? I mean Paul McCartney, please."  
  
"Spike, Cordelia is my Seer, not a cheerleader! How did you hear it? It's just me and Cordelia that share the link."  
  
"Your my bloody Sire, remember how you used to pull the strings in my head for hours. I think the chip has just made the signal all that stronger. Fuck the Initiative! Why is she reciting Yesterday lyrics anyway?"  
  
"It's our song. We danced to it one night when she was teaching me 'People Skills!' She must have been remembering it."  
  
"People skills? Since when have you been a people Vampire? She sure has got you whipped."  
  
"Spike. I. Am. Not. Whipped! Cordelia thought that I should learn how to do human things for when the day comes and she isn't here to teach me." His voice was full of sadness. "  
  
"I hate you sometimes. You've got a beautiful cheerleader, who bounces around, wearing next to nothing and now she is sending bloody Paul McCartney lyrics along some mental link you have. You have to learn to stay clear of the women of Sunnydale mate, nothing but bloody trouble, believe me I know." A book appeared out of mid-air and whacked Spike across the head. "Bloody hell, and there is a ghost that is hell-bent of trying to butcher me. Why didn't you just stay in Hell?" Spike whined.  
  
"Spike shut up and don't talk about Cordelia like that. Dennis did you find anything?"  
  
A lipstick floated out of Cordelia's make-up bag and headed towards the mirror. Angel jumped over to it and plucked it out of the air. "This is my favourite." He mumbled before offering Dennis his pad of paper.  
  
"I. F.O.U.N.D T.H.I.S!" Cordelia's favourite chiffon scarf appeared from behind the ghost.   
  
Angel took it in his hand and smelt it. He could smell the fear mixed with Cordelia's strawberry and vanilla essence.  
  
"I.T W.A.S I.N A.N A.L.L.E.Y N.E.A.R T.H.E M.A.G.I.C B.O.X.. D.O.E.S I.T H.E.L.P?"  
  
Angel looked sadly at the spot in the air where the scarf had appeared. "Yeah Dennis, it helps a lot. Thank-you. Don't worry Dennis, it's 6 hours 'till sunset and I will find her." He gripped the scarf tightly in his fist.  
  
The cellphone sitting beside the bed on his table started to ring. Angel leapt for it, flicking the dial pad open.  
  
"Cordelia? Is that you?" He shouted down the phone.  
  
"No, it's Buffy." He voice was full of hurt as Angel let out a disappointed sigh. "We have had no luck with the spell. Who ever it was has left their tracks pretty covered."  
  
"I know it was Wolfram and Hart but I don't know why except that Cordelia is my link to the Powers."  
  
"Tara said something about feeling a large presence of mystic energy. She said that whoever took Cordelia was either a very powerful witch or she was using some pretty heavy magic; enough magic for an identity spell.  
  
"You mean like taking someone else or disguising themselves as someone else? Darla!" Angel shouted down the phone.  
  
"She isn't that stupid to come back here is she Angel?" Buffy asked concerned at who was next on the Vampiress' hit list.  
  
"She's not stupid but she is desperate and desperate people, or demons, do desperate things. She warned me when I...um well when I left her that Cordelia was only human and that Seer's are replaced where as a death isn't. She took Cordelia to get to me or Angelus. This is all my fault."  
  
"Angel, this isn't your fault; this is Darla's fault and Drucillia's for turning her. Cordelia wouldn't want you brooding and defiantly not at a time like this. Let me help, please."  
  
"Buffy you read the note: No Slayer. I can't put her at risk like that." He stressed.  
  
"What if Darla has minions or she tries to put you under that whacked out sleeping spell she has, Cordelia told Tara and I dragged it out of Tara, you won't be any use to Cordelia then."  
  
Angel knew he wasn't going to win this on and a back up sound like a better idea; he couldn't risk Cordelia of Darla's obsession with him. "Buffy the note said Midnight at the old mill. Give me ten minutes then leave the magic shop. Wait outside for my signal, you know what it is or you'll hear it. Be careful! I can only look after one person now."  
  
"Angel before you go, Take Spike with you. He was part of your twisted family or Angelus' at least. He is good now and he has helped me out. Just trust him."  
  
Angel scoffed. "YOU, the Slayer, are asking me to trust 'one-half-of-the-badest-vampires-in-the-world' SPIKE? Buffy has he being playing around with robots again? Cordelia told me about that one."  
  
"Quit talking about me as if I'm not here." Spike shouted from the opposite side of the room. "Dennis fuck off!"  
  
Buffy moaned on the other phone. "Angel what's going on?"  
  
"Dennis, Cordelia's ghost, is using Spike for target practise with his latest weapon; the book."  
  
"Angel good night and I will be there at 10:15pm, OK."  
  
Angel picked up a stray book from the bed and threw it in Spikes direction. Spike tried to dodge Dennis' books but Angels hit him square on in the stomach. Spike vamped out and stared at Angel.  
  
"Spike don't say a word, get some sleep. Buffy said you are to come with me to the mill tomorrow. It's Darla that's got Cordelia."  
  
"Great the blonde phyco bitch, mark two version. Don't have too any wet dreams over your cheerleader, we don't want you to lose that pesky soul now do we?"  
  
Spike slammed the door shut as the latest volume of 'Vampires, Demons and Witches: Your Complete Guide.' narrowly missed his head.  
  
Mid Afternoon:  
``````````````  
Cordelia drifted back into the realm of the continuos and became aware of a figure standing over her. She opened her eyes and squinted in the poor light at the woman standing in front of her. Isabelle stood twirling a piece of ginger hair in between her fingers.  
  
"Ah your awake at last. I've been waiting for hours to have some fun with you." Isabelle laughed.  
  
Cordelia watched in horror as Isabelle muttered a few words, she thought were Italian, and her tall, ginger haired appearance changed into the shorter, blonde haired Vampire Cordelia had come to know as Darla.  
  
"Darla?" She hoarsely whispered, not believing her eyes.  
  
"That's right my dear. It's a nifty little spell isn't it, thanks to Dru. Now where oh where to begin with this torture. Angelus used to be so good at this, well he'll soon be back thanks to you my little May Queen."  
  
"What you think that he is going to give up his demon over too you? And you think he will do this to get me back? Are you mad, in fact don't answer that: I know you are."  
  
A taller, more built, figure appeared over Darla's shoulder and stared at Cordelia. "Darla, leave her with me for a minutes and I will make her understand." He turned to Cordelia and smiled.  
  
Cordelia felt her heart skip a beat as she recognised the smooth voice. "Lindsey?" She rasped.  
  
Darla walked away, running her long finger nail down Lindsey's cheek and whispering a 'Don't be long.' in his ear.   
  
"What is it with you people? I know you are lawyers that like to dabble with the demonic group of society but I'm just a human. No horns, no acidic spit, no fangs, just skin, bones and a love for Ben and Jerry's."  
  
"You're very special Cordelia. You have a very special gift."  
  
"These visions aren't anything special, just go out and kiss a pin-head demon and poof, you've got yourself a Powers slide show. There are other Seers you know, I'm nothing special so let me go, please." She begged.  
  
"Your power is not what interests us anymore, you have something much more precious. You hold Angels heart."  
  
"Oh no you have the wrong Sunnydale girl. You mean Buffy. She is Angels eternal lover and boy we're never allowed to forget it. I look nothing like her; she's shorter, blonde bottle job, the high kicks and stakes usually give her away. Now please let me go." The tears started to fall from her eyes.  
  
"We know who Buffy is: The Vampire Slayer, like Faith. No you see I have a very good source that tells me that Angel has a new love now: You!"  
  
"What is this source? The Inquirer? Go look Buffy up and let her kick your butt. Why do you hate me so much?" Cordelia asked, the dull thumping in her head returning.  
  
"I don't hate you, I am simply trying to please someone. You are simply part of a plan to remove my only obstacle. My source is Drucillia and a little prophecy that tells of your and Angels future once he become human."  
  
"Yeah well it wouldn't be the first time that a prophecy is wrong. Let me guess, your trying to win that whore in the next room. She won't want you. She is obsessed with Angel."  
  
Lindsey sithed in anger. He brought his face within inches of Cordelia's frightened eyes. "She will love me like I love her."  
  
Cordelia weakly laughed. "Where have you been living the last three months? La La land? God for a Lawyer, you are really thick."  
  
Lindsey back-handed Cordelia's face sending her head flying back against the wall. A crack resounded off the walls as Cordelia slumped in her chains.  
  
Sunset:  
```````  
Angel walked hurriedly into the living room, the sun would be setting in 10 minutes and Spike was no where in sight. His leather duster lay on the couch, stakes strapped to his wrists and a dagger strapped to his ankle. He was expecting trouble and he was determined that nothing would stop him.  
  
  
"SPIKE! Hurry up it's almost set." Angel shouted impatiently through the cold mansion.  
  
"I'm coming for god sake you'll wake up the dead. Mind you they are probably starting to rise already." Spike smiled at Angel but Angel remained stotic.  
  
"I want to get to the mill early, check the place out. I'll go around the front, you go in through the back. I'll take downstairs if you take the upstairs. Don't muck this one up Spike, there's too much at stake."  
  
The two Vampires left as soon as the sunset and headed across the barren waste land down to the old paper mill, abandoned when the owner was killed by a Vampire clan. The stern, metal building stood silhouetted against the last of the yellowing sky. Angel waved a silent arm and Spike disappeared around the back, setting up an ambush if needed. Angel cast his face into the air and took in a deep un-natural breath. There was no sign of Cordelia on the wind but there was a strange smell, a human male smell. A mixture of Cologne and take-out food. He knew as soon as he set foot inside the collapsing building that Cordelia wasn't there, he couldn't feel her. Angel check the basement but the thick layer of dust had been untouched in the 20 years since the last Vampire nest had been dusted. He met up with Spike in the entrance hall, both reporting that they hadn't seen any sign of anything, living or dead. The door slammed shut behind them as they both turned to leave. A paper note was tacted to the door, blowing in the night air. The handwriting was the same writing from the note of the mansion door.  
  
She Isn't Here! She's Where She First  
Learned Things Go Bump In The Night!  
Don't Be Late.  
  
"This has got to be someone idea of a sick joke." Spike laughed nervously.  
  
"No this is Darla's idea of playing games, but the fun was finished along time ago." He pulled his cellphone from his duster pocket and clicked Redial.  
  
"Hello?" The ageing mans voice filled the line.  
  
"Giles, it's Angel. The Mill was a decoy. They said that she is where she first learned things go bump in the night. I'm thinking when she first learned of Vampire like in the Library with the Slayerettes."  
  
"No Cordelia was going to be one of the first victim of the Master during the Harvest. When Luke tried to drink her blood at the....."  
  
"Bronze!"  
  
"Bronze!" Both men exclaimed at the same time.  
  
"Tell Buffy there's a change of plan and tell her to show up at the Bronze in 20 minutes. Not sooner, I was to come alone. Me and Spike will see you there." He slid the phone back in his pocket and turned to his Childe. "Fancy a party?"  
  
They headed out to the convertible and roared away in the direction of the burnt-out night-club.  
  
"Peaches, you know that stuff I said about the cheerleader earlier, I'm sorry. I can see you've fallen for her big time and what with Buffy shacked up with Fishboy, it can't be easy for you. It's effecting us all."  
  
"Spike anyone would think you have gained a soul while the commandos held you hostage. But thanks, it means....something."  
  
"Listen Brood features, I ain't got no poofy soul OK. I'm just saying I know what it's like. You have that curse thing still going on haven't you?"  
  
"No, not really." Spike looked at him very confused. "When I started going off the rails I was summoned to what was the Oracles chamber and shown that Darla was to be the turning point in my tumble. In order to 'help me along' they gave me a permanent soul with the warning that one more slip and take it back and double my grief."  
  
"Nothin' like a wrap on the knuckles to put you in your place. So have you let her know how you feel?"  
  
"When did you become a shrink? Of course I haven't told her. She isn't the insensitive cheerleader you think she is, well not all of the time. She is still trying to get her head around these visions and then there is Doyle. He loved her and she realised she loved him. He was my best friend, I couldn't do that to him and then I have to think about Buffy."  
  
"The way I see it is that the demon gave Cordelia the visions for a reason; to make sure you two stay together so that is what you should do. I bet she's good. As for Buffy, she didn't think twice before jumping into bed with Finn and like you told her, you have different lives. God man, you are turning soon, your life is to short now and I'm sure Cordelia will make that time fly by."  
  
The burnt remains of the Bronze didn't look out of place in the now desolate estate. Everybody had began to notice that people tended to disappear at the Bronze so they stayed clear of months until someone took a torch, some said it was the owner for insurance, and no one had took it over yet. The area was deserted but he could sense Cordelia, she was unconscious but he could still feel her. Spike and Angel headed though the boarded up door and walked over to what used to be the stage.  
  
"Well, well Spike, your brainier than I though or did Angel work it out." Darla laughed giddily.  
  
"Darla!" Angel spat through gritted teeth. "Where is she?" He shouted.  
  
"Oh your little Seer, she's lying around somewhere, but she isn't doing very well. Shallow breaths, painful moans. I think she needs a doctor or a blood transfusion."  
  
"Darla, I came alone now where is she? What do you want?"  
  
"I want my dear boy back. He has been trapped for so long and after his little escapes I want to set him free permanently."  
  
Spike stepped in. "Not gonna happen anytime soon so Phyco, hand over the Seer and we'll be on our way."   
  
"Not until we get what we want." Lindsey appeared from behind Darla. "You see The Firm have spent too much money on trying to get Angelus back and your final death. Now until I get on or the other you aren't getting Cordelia back, well alive anyway."  
  
"I knew this wasn't all Darla's work. Who ever labelled you a human was highly mistaken. I won't ask twice, give me Cordelia!"  
  
"Why do you want her back? She is nothing but a worthless, poor, replacement for me. I've seen her trying to act and I have seen Chaos Demons who could act human better than her. She is crap." Darla shouted angrily.  
  
Angel and Spike watched as Darla's face twisted in surprise before she exploded into a cloud of dust, settling on Lindseys arm. Everyone looked up to where Darla had once stood to see Cordelia, haggard and hardly breathing, trying to hold herself up on the banister while clutching a piece of broken wood for dear life in her right hand.  
  
"Nobody calls me a bad actress except my family." She muttered to the ashes that had finally settled beside the ashes of the fire.  
  
"You Bitch, you killed her." Lindsey shouted. He turned to Cordelia, who still had her weapon in her hand and back-handed her. She dropped the piece of wood and cried out in pain and fear as the wooden banister collapsed from the force of Lindsey's back hand. Angel and Spike couldn't move in the spilt second between Lindseys and action and the dull thud as Cordelia's already weakened Body hit the floor, still as death. 


	4. At All Costs - Part Four

At All Costs - Part Four  
````````````````````  
Angel watched in slow motion as Cordelia fell through the weak wood, her arms flailing as she reached for Lindsey to stop herself falling. The energy that she had built up to stake Darla had gone and she just fell to the ground. He rushed over to her, his feet becoming unstuck. Her breathing was failing fast and her heartbeat was slowly, quieting in his ears. Spike joined his side, looking at her, pity filled his stone cold heart. Lindsey collapsed over the pile of ashes that was once Darla, his cool Lawyer shell falling in his grief. Angel scooped Cordelia into his arms, her body still warm against his.  
  
"Come on Cordelia wake up. Please Cora." He begged to her still form. "Just open your eyes for me please."  
  
"What can I do Angel?" Spike asked.  
  
""Get him." Angel pointed to Lindsey. "Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."  
  
Spike walked up the stairs to Lindsey who was still mourning over Darla's ashes. "Come on mate get up. She is dead now."  
  
GET AWAY FROM ME you monster." Lindsey shouted.  
  
Spike vamped out and lunged at Lindsey. Spike knew the limits to his chip and stopped short of the pain barrier. Lindsey dived back from Spikes fangs and the back of his head connected with a low beam. Spike watched satisfied as Lindsey swayed for a few moments and then fell to the ground. "I'm hurt! I'm not that much of a demon anymore."  
  
Angel pulled Cordelia close to his body as he heartbeat slowed even more, his head to her chest picking up the faint sounds. Then there was silence, it had stopped.  
  
"NO!!" Angel shouted. "Cora come on, breath for me."  
  
The sound of footsteps behind him hurried at the sound of the cry. Buffy, Xander, Giles and Willow burst into the room expecting to find an animal in pain but saw Spike standing over the now unconscious Lindsey and Angel sitting on the floor with his Seer in his arms.  
  
"Angel?" Giles tapped him lightly on the shoulder.  
  
"Her heart has stopped. She won't breath for me." He cried weakly. "She won't breath."  
  
"God sake Angel move!" Giles took Cordelias body from Angels lap and Buffy pulled the inconsolable Vampire back from him. Giles lay her body flat out on the ground and lifted her chin up. He put his ear to her chest and listened for heartbeat; there was none. He pinched her nose between his thumb and his index finger and seal his lips around her mouth. Her chest rose as the borrowed filled her lungs but she wasn't doing it. Giles tried again then placed his hands on top of each other and began pressing his weight down on her breast bone. He counted 15 loud pushed as the Slayerettes and the Vampire stood by and watched. Xander moved down beside Cordelia's head and helped Giles with his CPR. After five minutes of rhythmic massage and breaths Cordelia's chest rose slowly by it's self, holding the breath for a second then falling again. She was back. Both Spike and Angel heard her heartbeat again and her little shallow breaths.   
  
"Angel is your car out the front?" The Vampire nodded. "Help me get her in there and we have to take her to a hospital. I'll go with you in case her heart stops again. Buffy get Riley and his men here. I think our friend here is in need of rehabilitation, secret service style."  
  
Angel scooped Cordelia's still body into his arms and ran to the car. He lay her gently across Giles lap and jumped in the front. Spike was sitting in the passenger side waiting for him. Angel simply looked at him while starting the car.  
  
"What?" Spike exclaimed. "I am not going back to that bloody house with that ghost. I wanna see how she is doing anyway."  
  
Angel slammed his foot on the accelerator and the car roared down the street towards Sunnydale University Hospital. Giles had to bring Cordelia back once more as her condition got worse. Angel was passive but Giles and Spike both knew he was dying inside. Spike had used Angels cellphone to phone ahead and the resuscitation team were waiting for them. Cordelia was bundled onto a metal trolley and rushed towards the ER. Angel ran with the trolley until the nurses closed the ER doors leaving him too look through the glass as the put IV's into her arm and drugs into the new venflone in her arm. He could do little but watch as the doctor in charge called for the paddles and shocked her twice before the comforting bleep of the monitor attached to her chest signalled she was back, at least for the time being.  
  
Giles and Spike watched from the reception after giving Cordelia's details to the woman on duty. Giles felt his heart heave at the events that had led him here. He felt for the Vampire who had not moved from his position, watching the team trying to save her. Spike had put himself in Angel's shoes trying to imagine what his Sire was going through. He would be going mad at the doctors if the woman he had grown to love was lying in Cordelia's place, not that she ever would. If she were on the brink of death, nothing the doctors could do would save her.  
  
Angel jumped back as the doors opened and Cordelia's form was wheeled through and rushed into a lift. He tried to follow her but the lift doors closed and she was gone. The doctor that had worked on her walked calmly out of the messed up room, removing his latex gloves.  
  
"Where have they taken her?" He demanded at the doctor.  
  
"Sorry are you family?" He asked ignoring Angels stern tone.  
  
"I'm all she has, her family are gone."  
  
"Miss Chase has a clot in her brain. Someone had hit her with a blunt object and it wasn't treated so the blood that clotted around wound was dislodged and started moving in her brain. They have taken her up to the OR to try and get it out or stop it causing major damage. What happened to her?"  
  
"She was kidnapped by my...um...ex-wife and her Satanist boyfriend. They held her hostage. This is all my fault."  
  
"You realise I will have to phone the police. This is attempted murder." He laid a firm hand on Angels shoulder. "None of this was your fault. I'm sure you did your best to find her."  
  
"The police are already involved. Where is the OR?"  
  
"Second floor up, ask at their reception. She'll be in there a while . You might want to go home and get some rest."  
  
"I'll stay!"  
  
Angel went over to talk to Giles and Spike. "She's gone up to he OR. They said something about a clot in her brain. She hates hospitals so I am going to wait for her to come out of the operation. Thank-You Giles for what you did. I know we have never been friends, what with Buffy and...Thank-You. Take Spike and my car go home. Spike you can stay in the mansion while I am here." The two men went to walk away but Angel Grabbed Spikes jacket. "Spike who ever this girl is tell her how you feel in case...incase you never get the chance again."  
  
His Childe smiled at the Vampires meaning. "Peaches, she will be OK, she a fistey one."  
  
Angel headed up to the OR and sat on the blue, uncomfortable chairs, not that Angel noticed. He sat, brooding, running through all the mistakes that he had made, leading him to this hospital. A nurse gently tapped Angel on the shoulder and brought him out of his brooding.  
  
"Excuse me Sir. Sorry to disturb you but visiting hours are over. You can come back tomorrow at 9am though."  
  
"My...um...She is in the Operating Room and I wanted to be here when she came out. Can I maybe stay?"  
  
The nurse saw the looking his deep eyes and smiled. "Are you family? We only really let family stay overnight."  
  
"I'm her...um...fiancé. Her family died in a accident two years ago." He said sadly thinking of Doyle.  
  
"Miss Chase should be finished in about an hour if all goes well. We'll make up another bed in her room for you."  
  
He simply nodded to the kind nurse. He glanced at the clock. 4am, she had been in there 3 and a half hours. He leaned back in the chair to place his head against the back of the wall and closed his eyes.  
  
Cordelia came to him in his dreams. She was wearing a purple, muslin dress, flowing in the wind. Her brown hair half tied up in tiny purple daisies. Cordelia smiled sweetly at him and beckoned him closer to her.  
  
"My Angel. You brood too much over me. I am fine now, you are my peace. You think that I don't know how you feel. I'm stuck on a table while some old guy with a miners helmet on saws my skull open. I have all these icky tubes sticking out of me and I look a state. Opps.. I'm meant to be this angel person. If I don't make I want you to go, except your new Seer and fight for your redemption with me and Doyle in your heart. I've been told that he's in Heaven waiting for me. I didn't know that they let demons in the gates. Takes all sorts. Anyway Angel remember I love you...I love you...." He voice faded away gently as he opened his eyes to find the nurse standing over him again.  
  
"Sir, your girlfriend is out of surgery but I'm afraid it didn't she isn't awake yet. If you would like to follow me and the doctor will explain things a little better."  
  
Angel followed the nurse down the sterile hallway and into a side room where Cordelia was lying in a medical bed, covers up to he chest. There was a ventilator tube hooked up to a lung machine and three different IV's in her arms. A monitor gave out a reassuring, constant beeping to let Angel know that she was still alive.  
  
"Mr..."  
  
"O' Conner." Angel filled in for him. "Cordelia's fiancée."  
  
"Mr O' Conner, Miss Chase has come through the operation OK, I'm very happy with it. She will be kept sedated and hooked up to a ventilator so that her body can recover at it's own rate. Something did bother me. Her brain looks like it has undergone multiple trauma, like an epileptic fits, but all parts of her brain seem to be in the best condition, can you shed any light on this?"  
  
"She used to have fits but that stopped about a year ago and the doctors didn't know what caused it." He lied.  
  
"Well Miss chase should make a full recovery but her speech maybe affected for a while. Keep talking to her, the hearing is the last thing to go and I'm sure she will understand every word you say. Good Night Mr O' Conner."  
  
The doctor left Angel staring down at his sleeping beauty. Her long hair was pinned down by the thick white bandage around her head, shielding her wound from his eyes. Her face seemed as peaceful as the day, a different colour from the pale, deathly white she had been five hours before. He brushed his fingers lightly over the scratch down the left hand of her face, glad to see it wasn't deep enough to scar. The deep purple/black bruise across her cheek glared furiously at him, Lindsey had a lot to answer for. He sat on the bed and took her warm hand in cold grasp. Angel closed his eyes slowly and tried to bring her back to him.  
  
"Cordelia I know you can here me. Answer me." He asked.  
  
A childish giggle emanated around the empty black space. "You miss me?" Cordelia still didn't show herself.  
  
"Cora don't play games with me, you know I hate fun." He mocked.  
  
Cordelia peeled out of the darkness and walked towards him. Had he had any breath he was sure it would have been taken away from him. She wasn't dressed in the purple muslin drape anymore, instead she was dressed in a floor length, maroon velvet dress, her hair fully up in large roses of the same colour. She twirled in front of him, showing him the plunging back and thin straps. "Do you like?" Angel simply gulped and nodded. "Good, I didn't like the other one so I changed it. You just think of something and it happens. Watched."   
  
Cordelia concentrated for a moment and Candle's appeared around the room. Angel looked down at his black duster to find it gone; replaced by a black tuxedo.  
  
"Can I wish you back to me?"  
  
"Angel, it either isn't time for me to come back or I'm not meant to come back. Now stop with the deep stuff and dance with me."  
  
"There isn't any music Cordelia." He pointed out.  
  
"Well use you imagination brood boy."  
  
Angel concentrated hard, listening out for music, then he heard it. The soft guitar solo filled the candle lit room and a smooth voice filled the air. 'Yesterday...' Angel drew Cordelia into his arms and started to move her body. She clung onto him for all she was worth, scared that this might be the last time that she would ever have the chance to him, even if she did make it. The song faded away and the room began to lighten.  
  
"What are you doing?" She asked confused.  
  
"I want you to watch the sunrise with me. This isn't my reality so I won't turn into ashes."  
  
They sat on the bench, that had appeared behind them, in each others arms. Cordelia let out a sign and sensed a presence heading in their direction.   
  
"Angel you have to let me go, the nurse is coming to check on me. You have to go or they will try and section you. Just in case. Here." She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. "My Goodbye"  
  
"There are no more goodbyes Cordelia."  
  
Angel disappeared from her sight and she went back to her afternoon tea with Brad Pitt.  
  
"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to wake you Mr O' Conner, I'm Julie, Cordelia's nurse, just checking out how she's doing. Um some English man called Giles phoned to see how Cordelia was doing but I couldn't tell him anything, he wasn't family. Maybe you could phone him and let him know?"  
  
"Yeah I will thanks. Nurse, how long is she going to need to recover after she is out of hospital? I mean with the speech thing and the operation."  
  
"She will be out of action for about a week before she can doing anything near normal. I take it you both are from LA? She will need about 7 to 8 days before she will be up to the journey back."  
  
The nurse left and Angel reached for his cellphone. He headed out of the room and rode the elevator down to the ground floor before dialling Giles number.  
  
"Hi Giles, it is Angel here. The nurse said you had phoned to find out about Cordelia."  
  
"Yes they wouldn't tell me anything. Buffy, Willow and Xander are here so I'll put you on speaker phone." Giles pressed the bottom and the Slayerettes sat up in their sleeping bags clumped together on the floor.  
  
"Well she is out of surgery and she is on a ventilator and they wanna keep her sedated for a few days until they know her body is healing. They nearly found out about the visions but..." He faded off. "She will need about a week to recover outside of hospital before she can go back to LA."  
  
"Thank-You Angel. Take care and send her our love."  
  
"Can you phone Wesley and Gunn to let them know what happened and that I will be in contact as soon as she wakes up."  
  
Angel hung up on the cellphone abruptly, desperate to get back to Cordelia and talk to her.  
  
A Few Days Later:  
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Angel lay down gently on the bed that had been his home for the past four days. Closing his eyes had been the only to pass the long days and nights while Cordelia had been in her coma. The ventilator had been taken out two days ago and the sedative stopped the evening before, now it was all up to her. Angel felt the mist clear and she was waiting for him, dressed in a black leather halter top and black leather trousers.  
  
"Well aren't we looking like Cat Woman tonight."  
  
"I felt like being a little like Faith tonight. All that leather seemed to turn men on and I wanted to feel a little sexy 'Cos no doubt they have me dressed in some paper hospital gown."  
  
"No you are dressed in your favourite PJ's well my favourite PJ's. Listen Cordelia," He took her hand and the bar scene in front of him disappeared. "We have to talk."  
  
"We've talked lots. We've talked about your past as newly souled Angel, your past as playboy Liam and we touched on Angelus."  
  
"We have to talk about you waking up sometime soon. The doctors say you should be ready and that if it is going to happen, it's going to happen sometime soon. I want you back in the land of the living Cordy, Wesley misses you, Dennis refuses to let anyone in your room at the mansion and Gunn can't handle the paperwork anymore. I can't keep visiting you like this forever. I want to talk to you face to face, so much has changed."  
  
"I like it in here, I like having you in here. You can sunbathe without turning in to the Vampire version of a fireball. We can talk without you brooding and there is no demons, end of the world crap; it's just us."  
  
"It can be like that out here if you wake up. Cordelia face reality, don't run away from the big bad world: Cordelia Chase does not run away from anything."  
  
"I'll come back if you promise me one thing. We will talk about us. No running away from you either."  
  
"Deal! I'll be seeing you on the other side."  
  
Angel drifted away from her and hoped to what ever God that would listen, that she would keep her promise and he would keep his. It was, as Doyle would say, Time To Face The Music. Who ever had made up that one had never met Cordelia!  
  
He had been sitting by her bed now for three hours and she still wasn't awake. He was worrying that maybe she wasn't ready to face the problems she had outside, that the world they had been living in for four days was too easy to stay in and she wouldn't come back. Angel felt her fingertip tap slightly on his, enough to draw his attention to her face. Cordelia's eyes flickered briefly, still deciding whether to come back or not, and then to Angels relief they opened fully. He had never been so glad to see her deep hazel eyes looking at him, their fire back and burning bright. She smiled at him and he smiled back. Angel brushed a lose tress of hair from her cheek and stared at her.  
  
"Welcome back."  
  
She smiled again and tried to speak out but her throat was dry and her voice out of practise. He offered a drink of water and she tried to speak again. "Nice sight to wake up to. How long?"  
  
"You've been out of it for four days now. You have everyone so worried. They've all been into see you, even Spike came but he said it was just to escape from Dennis."  
  
"I'm so...so..." She tried to get the words out but she struggled until Angel filled in for her. 'Sorry'. "I'm sorry about...Dar...um..." She threw her fists down on the bed in frustration. "What is wrong with me?"  
  
"Cordelia, you had a really bad bang to the head and the doctors had top operate. They said you would have some speech and co-ordination problems but nothing permanent. It doesn't matter about Darla, she is dust and Lindsey is about to enjoy a long-time in confinement, Riley style. I'm glad you back because we really need to talk."  
  
"I have some questions. How did Dar...Dar...She get into the shop uninvited? I didn't say she could come in. Lindsey said something about a prophecy, that's why they had kid...taken me."  
  
"Darla had killed someone and took her identity, became them. She used a spell to do it, pretty powerful magicks. So she could go where ever she wanted but she could only hold the spell for a short time. I don't about any prophecy, what was it?"  
  
"The prophecy of Sha..." She cried out in frustration again.  
  
"Here." Angel laid a piece of paper in front of her and a pen in her hand but she couldn't grasp it so Angel took it in his hand so she could guide him. The letters S.H.A.B.I.S.H.A were spelt out in very shaky letters. "I'll get Wesley to check it out. He would be here but the gun shot wound and the demons are keeping him and Gunn very busy."  
  
"Did you talk to Bu...God this is a pain." She guided his hand on the paper again to spell B.U.F.F.Y.  
  
"No I haven't , I wanted to get things straighten out with you first."  
  
"Great, is this where we have the 'I-Love-Bu..Her-Plus-Your-My-Seer!' talk is it 'Cos I am really not want to hear it now. The Lawyer told me lots about relations...Relations...You know what I mean."  
  
"Cordelia, how about I do all the talking now. You know what I felt when I went back to the mansion and you weren't there? I was scared out of my mind. I don't fear death but when I had found out that they had taken you, I couldn't think straight. I even tried to Giles to perform a spell that didn't exist. All I could think about was you, your face, your whiny voice, the way you flick your hair in the air when we argue and you think you've won. I tried to think what my un-life would be like without you and I couldn't picture it. You've been there when everything went pear-shaped and you never gave up on me. What I'm trying to say is that I have something for you, feelings and desires. Spike sort of brought it all to a head again. He told me I was whipped but I realised it was love, very strong feelings, not the ball and chain."  
  
"Spike!" She exclaimed. "The lawyer told me that there is a prophecy..about us, together. He said that I held your heart but I thought that was her job, not mine. God how I wish it was but I know...." She faded off.  
  
"A prophecy about us shouldn't be argued at. If I said we should be together then who am I to stand in the was of what is written." He joked seriously. Cordelia snorted in irony at him. "OK so I can chose which prophecy I let come true and what ones I slay and this one comes true."  
  
Cordelia beamed in delight then her smile faded. "The curse?"  
  
He shook his head at her concern. "There is no curse anymore. The Powers got wise to Darla and save the world one more Vampire staked. If I be good I get to play but if I be naughty then they take it away and give me even more grief!" He said playfully.  
  
"NO MORE BROODING!" Cordelia shouted meekly. "I like the playful Angel."  
  
She gasped in delight as Angel nuzzled her neck before planting his lips lightly on her pulse point. "I think I will have to get a doctor now, tell them my Sleeping Beauty is awake."  
  
The doctor came in and was delighted at Cordelia's pain test responses but still a little concerned at her difficulty at speech and simple words. He gave her the all clear for two days of observation. Angel spent the two days making Spike help him do the mansion up for his Queen C's temporary home-coming. Angel arrived at the hospital as soon as the sun had set and walked proudly to Cordelia's room, thanking the nurses, who now knew him by first name, that had taken care of his Princess. She was sitting up in her bed dressed in loose cargo pants and a little white T-shirt. She turned around and beamed brightly at Angel while the nurse left them to it. Her bag full of things Angel had brought in for her, the Cosmopolitan sitting on the top. A bunch of flowers from Angel was sitting on her lap.  
  
"So are you ready to go home, well back to the mansion anyway? I have it all fixed up for you but I said Spike could stay for helping me out with you."   
  
She nodded. He pulled the wheelchair to the bed but Cordelia shock her head at him. "I wanna walk out please." Angel helped her to her feet and she went to take her first step in over a week. She cried out as her legs gave way and she sunk into Angels arms. "Or I could just take the wheelchair like a sensible girl."  
  
A Little Later:  
`````````````  
The door opened in front of them thanks to Dennis as Angel carried Cordelia into her new home for the time being. There was more furniture and a bed set up in a room off the living room so Cordelia wouldn't have to climb any stairs. Spike, who sat with his back to them, rose and greeted Cordelia it a raise eyebrow.  
  
"At Bloody last your home. He can stood sulking around like a demon with a sword in his side and you and him can start shagging. He has some sexual tension built up. Oh yeah and see that ghost of your, it lays on more book on me I will exorcise it."  
  
Cordelia simply scoffed as Angel carried her through to the side room and lay her on the bed. "Now you are going to get some rest like the doctor said and no 'Buts'" He said as she went to open her mouth.  
  
He walked away but was stopped as she shouted out his name. He turned to face her and found a sly grin on her face.  
  
She patted the bed beside her. "Stay, Please."  
  
Angel could do little but agree to his Princess' demands.  
  
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One last chapter to come. Nutty 


	5. At All Costs - Part Five -Epiloge

Too Ill to grammer/spellcheck it. Sorry  
  
At All Costs - Part Five  
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Cordelia woke slowly from her deep sleep. The groggy feeling from the spent pain killers clouded her mind as she brought herself into the land of the living. Angel was sitting at the foot of the bed, clothed and a tray with breakfast things sitting on his lap.  
  
"Mmm Morning, What are you doing up? It's morning and you are nocturnal. What you got there?" Cordelia asked looking down at the breakfast tray in hunger.  
  
"Afternoon! I thought after four days of dream food you could do with some real food. We have cereal with chopped strawberries and toast, plain, I knew you didn't like butter. I didn't know what you would like." He shrugged shyly.  
  
"I'll have the cereal. I could get used to this you know; waking up with you bringing breakfast in bed. You could take Dennis place and maybe he could have a retirement break in Hawaii. What time is it anyway?"  
  
"It's 1:30 in the afternoon, we are going to get some visitor today. Everyone really want to see you." A door bell rang in the distance. "And that would be the first ones."  
  
Dennis opened the door so Angel wouldn't get burnt. The two visitors walked straight in used to door being opened without a visible owner. Angel let out at sigh at the sound of the very different voices that now filled the house.  
  
"I tell ya English, it was Astaroth. He was big bad and ugly, plus I saw it in one of your olde books." Gunn insisted.  
  
"Gunn, you should pay more attention it was Ascaroth. Sound the same but it was too easy to kill. Astaroth was one of the chief Devils where as Ascaroth was a demon of spies. It remains well hidden and can take on many disguises, that's why you took so long to find it."  
  
Angel moved back down to the foot of the bed and cleared his throat loudly. "What is this about the Chief Devils?"   
  
"Nothin' man it was just English being a know-it-all again. How ya doing Cordelia? We brought flowers didn't we WESLEY." Gunn kicked Wesley gently in the shin.  
  
"What, yes flowers." Wesley looked up from his walking stick for the first time on entering the room. "Good God girl! What did they do to you Cordelia?" Wesley exclaimed at Cordelias thick bandages.  
  
"Way to make me feel better. It isn't as bad as it looks, well almost as bad. They come off when I go to the hospital to get the stitches out in 14 days. So what ya been slaying?"  
  
"Astaroth!"  
  
"Ascaroth!" They said in unison.  
  
"Listen, MAN, I am the Watcher, I was taught about mythology and demonology for many years in a top institute. You." He pointed at Gunn "Are just the Freelance. I think that I might know better than you."  
  
"You just had to fling your education back in my face, didn't ya." Gunn joked. "So Cordelia, when are you coming back to LA? English here needs someone to show him how to use a cross-bow properly. He hold it like a girl."  
  
"I'm sure ..esley...esley."  
  
"Wesley. She having trouble with some W words and some words with F's in them so far. The doctors said it was normal. Guys do you want tea, a diet soda, coffee."  
  
Gunn asked for a coffee while Wesley followed Angel into the more utensiled kitchen and helped him with the coffee while balancing on his walking stick.  
  
"So Angel what really happened to her?" Wesley asked now they were out of Cordelias ear shot.  
  
"She was kidnapped by Darla and Lindsey. They used magicks so I couldn't have stopped them from taking her. Someone called Isabelle went to the Magic Box and said that you had sent them. Well Tara, a Wicca, Willows girlfriend, didn't know better and I was helping Buffy in a battle so Tara let her go. It took a while what with the daylight and all, but me and Spike tracked her down. She was at the Bronze and she stake Darla. Cordelia would had been better if Lindsey hadn't back handed her and she fell from the top floor to the ground. Giles had to bring her round. I can't believe how close we all came to losing her."  
  
"Sound like you had another wake up call Angel. Lets hope you let us all in this time. Cordelia was ever so destressed when you went Absent With Out Leave. She told me about Doyle but apart from that she didn't talk a word except when the business was started up again. I think it was because it reminded her of you. I warn you now Angel, and I realise I am in no position to, but you hurt her again and I will stake you myself, if I can get near you. So Cordelia killed Darla huh?"  
  
"Yeah, she's stronger than I was." Angel muttered to himself.  
  
"Cordelia is not stronger than you. Oh I get what you mean. She has always been a strong girl Angel, you walking out made a harder shell. You have to break down some of that shell again. It will take time but I am sure you will be the best of friends again in no time."  
  
"Me and Cordelia already made up when she was in her coma. We sorted everything out and I am coming back to work but I will work for you this time so I can't go firing any of you. Now we better get these back to Cordelia, she has to take medication."  
  
The little group sat on Cordelia bed, Gunn and Wesley still arguing about the demon they had slayed the night before. They were disturbed from repairing their shattered group by a firm knock on the door.   
  
Gunn rose from the bed and pulled the heavy door back to reveal a little blonde standing in the afternoons sunshine.  
  
Buffy looked strangely at the dark-skinned man in front of her, having never seen him before. 'He is human at least.' she though to herself.  
  
"Hi, I'm here to see Angel. I'm Buffy."  
  
Gunn pulled his sunglasses down his nose and looked her up and down. He spread his arm to the left motioning for her to come in. She walked in unrestricted and Gunn smiled.  
  
"He's in Cordelia's room with Wesley."  
  
Buffy lifted an eyebrow and followed Gunns towering figure into a large room where she saw Wesley sitting at the foot of the bed balancing a wooden walking stick on his knee. Angel sat, his legs on the bed, beside Cordelia who had a glass of water in her hand and throwing little blue pills down her throat and quickly swallowing the water.  
  
"Hiya Cordelia, Wesley...Angel." She hesitated.  
  
"Hi Bu...Bu...Slayer." Cordelia stuttered.  
  
Buffy looked at Cordelia then turned her gaze to Angel quizzically.  
  
"She's having trouble with some words like Wesley and your name." Gunn cleared his throat loudly. "Oh sorry this is Gunn, he's a...freelance Vampire hunter."  
  
"Great you get to freelance in my job now. I'm meant to be the only one. You know; Unto each generation a Slayer is born."  
  
"Oh Buffy: The Vampire Slayer! Sorry I expected you to be..um..bigger, a lot bigger. I could kick your ass."  
  
"I get that a lot. You know what they say about small packages: We bite back. Cordelia tell him."  
  
"Gunn she'll kick your ass. She can kick Angel's ass, literally."  
  
"I thought I would give you the latest on the lawyer. Someone put out a Missing Persons on him, Lehia? Anyway he's gone a little insane, Darla has that effect on people. The Initiative took him to Rio for some um..how did Riley put it? Reprogramming. It's not good to be besotted with a 400 hundred year old Vampire." Buffy missed  
  
"Is that just available for humans or can Vampire get help as well?" Cordelia slyly asked.  
  
Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia turned and looked directly at Angel and burst out in laughter. Buffy looked on from the doorway, never feeling so left out in her life. It was a new experience for her. During the time she had been in Sunnydale, she had, had Willow Giles and Xander by her side then Angel, she had never felt completely left out until now. She turned her attention away from the laughing group at the feel of a familiar presence staring at her back. She turned to find Spike standing with an annoyed look on his face. He walked straight past her and into the room.  
  
"What the bloody hell is all this bloody noise? It's 3 O'clock in the bloody afternoon for Gods sake. Can't a Vampire get any sleep."  
  
Cordelia let out an harsh laugh while Wesley and Angel smirked haplessly at him. Gunn raised his eyebrow and looked away in disgust. It was Buffy who spoke up.  
  
"Nice boxers Spike, always been a fan of Mickey Mouse? There's me thinking you were always a Donald Duck man."  
  
Spike stared helplessly down at his mid rift, robeless and in full view. Angel tried to hold in his snigger but the innocent look on Spikes face set him off. Wesley followed him while Gunn looked on in pure amazement. Buffy almost felt sorry for the Vampire, she knew he didn't take ridicule very well in front of anyone never mind his Sire. His face changed from innocence to humour as Spike regained his composer.  
  
"Well my Pluto ones have gone missing, Last time I saw them Dennis had them on the other end of a pair of pokers from the fire. So Peaches did you relieve any of that tension last night then? I must admit it was very quiet last night."  
  
They all turned to Angel and Cordelia blushed in the horror at Spikes innuendo. "He's talking about all the tension for worrying about Cordelia. Wesley have you heard of The Prophecy of Shabisha?" Angel asked quickly changing the subject.  
  
"Yes I do believe it is mentioned in the scrolls but I haven't translated that part yet. It is written in the most peculiar language. It reminds me of Leonardo DiVinci's writings, why?"  
  
"Oh you don't have to worry about it, we've already had it translated thanks to Lindsey. He was very...helpful. Don't worry it isn't an battle or demon rising. I willing to accept this part of the scroll." Angel said. He felt Cordelia smile beside him.  
  
"Oh here Cordelia, Willow said to give you this. She will be by later with Giles and Xander. She said something about her mother giving her it when she was ill." Buffy handed her a small square box.  
  
Cordelia opened the box's bowed lid to reveal a Orange, Blue, Red, Green and White Rubix Cube.  
  
"Thanks Slayer, tell..." She paused to think of a description not involving the letters W or F. "Tell Tara's girlfriend Thank-You if you see her before I do." Cordelia let out a cat-like yawn.  
  
"I think Cordelia needs some rest." Angel let out an exaggerated yawn. "And I need some sleep as well. Wesley, Gunn, I'm sure Dennis will make up some rooms if you don't want to drive back to LA on the Chopper."  
  
The two men nodded and Cordelia snuggled deeper under her covers signalling she was ready to go to sleep. Angel closed the door and turned to face her. She smile slyly at him and he winked back at her.  
  
"Wesley why don't you take the scroll over to Giles and try and use some of his reference books to translate some more of it. Gunn, I am sure Buffy would take you to the Magic Box and show you just how bad a little blonde can bite back and then maybe you can take up my slack of patrolling with Spike."  
  
"What old Mickey draw's there? Sure why not." The tough man said as Spike tried to throw a punch at Gunns face but bucked back as the pain ripped through his head.  
  
The three humans left leaving the immortal and the injured party to sleep. Angel walked up the stone steps and into the master bedroom. He lay down on the freshly made sheets and closed his eyes.  
  
She was there waiting for him. It had been the first time they had met in their link since Angel had asked Cordelia to wake up. She was standing in her white PJ's smiling. He gently took her outstretched hand and they began to walk towards a group of people standing around in a circle.  
  
"Cora what's going on? How did all these people get here?"  
  
"The people are here because I wished them here. Just watched."  
  
Angel stood back, his hand still in Cordelias and watched as the crowd threw hands full of confetti into the air and cheered. A woman and a man parted the excited crowd, the man dressed in a morning suit and the woman in a flowing cream dress. Angel turned to Cordelia.  
  
"Cordelia why are we watching a wedding? Is it someone we know?"  
  
"Angel this is what I want you to do when you get your Shansu. I know I won't be alive when you turn human and I'm OK with that really but I don't want you to mope when I'm gone. I want you to find someone else you love and if it feels right, get married to them and have lots of kids." Angel looked at her quizzically. "Listen Brood features, I want you to be as happy as you make me and I know I can't give you a family and all that mushy stuff so this is what I want you to do. Promise me?"  
  
"Cordelia I can't pro..."  
  
"PROMISE ME!" She shouted.  
  
"OK, I promise you Cordelia but it won't be someone I love as much as you. Now come on, out of here. You need your rest now, and I have something's to do."  
  
He waved Cordelia off as the mists descended once again into his mind. He woke up immediately and got back out of bed. He reached out for his cell phone and dialled out the number.  
  
"Willies Bar, Willie speaking."  
  
"Willie, it's Angel. Listen I need you to create an identify for a Mr. William O'Conner. Social Security, driver's licence, everything."  
  
"Angel..." Willie stammered. "I thought you were in LA. I don't do that stuff anymore. I have a wife, kids to support. I don't do the demon thing anymore."  
  
"Willie, I don't like being lied to, Spike was there last night. I'll pay what ever you need."  
  
Willies voice changed at the sound of money. "Sure thing Angel, I'll get on it. I can get you them for Monday. Just come in and pick them up."  
  
Angel hung up the cell phone abruptly and smiled to himself.  
  
Later:  
``````  
Cordelia awoke to hear muffled voices of mixed anger and disbelief. She gentle pulled herself out of bed and stumbled out of her room into the living room. Cordelia propped herself up on the near-by couch, still a little unsteady on her feet, and watched Angel and Wesleys conversation.  
  
"Angel I translated the part of the scroll you said you had done and I must say I am rather confused as to it's meaning."  
  
"You mean the prophecy of Shabisha? I told you me and Cordelia had translated it."  
  
"Yes but I was curious. It says that, 'You destiny lies within the one who holds your heart, the union of Sights and Protection will bring upon the Final One. The world once again breathes and the Gates are sealed.' Does that mean that you and Buffy will be destined together, the Sights must be her propherical dreams and you are the Protector of light against the evil. So when the two of you...em...then you will seal the gates of Hell?"  
  
"Wesley for a Watcher you can be pretty dumb. When me and Buffy slept together, Hell broke lose and Buffy doesn't get the dreams anymore. Come on Wesley think about it, I know you can do it."  
  
Cordelia cleared her throat loudly drawing the mens attention from each other to her. "Maybe I can shed some light on his mental block. I am a Seer...or a Receiver of Sights! So that means when me and Angel..em...then we will seal the Gates. Lindsey McDonald kindly let it slip before he was carted off to Rio."  
  
Wesley looked surprise but his face soon turned to confusion. "Yes but what about the little matter of one happiness curse?"  
  
"Doesn't exist anymore. When I went off the rails The Powers decided that I was enough trouble so they gave me an anchored soul plus they know about the Scrolls. They are going to everything in their power to make sure the prophecies come true."  
  
"Well let me be the first to congratulate you on the chance to save the world. So you are going to be out of a job then Angel."  
  
"The Gates closing will only stop more demons coming into the human world but there is still the demons that are already here are what we have to fight now."  
  
"I don't think any union is going to be happening any time soon. Well not until I get these stitches out and I get the OK from the doctors. This goes no futher, I think the Slayer's having a hard time getting used to our family."  
  
"I don't get this Final One part though. It could be the last apocalypse but it talk of your union so it has to be something good. I'm thinking it could be the final Vampire. So you get your Shansu when all the Vampires are dusted, which, as we thought, could be lifetimes away. Anyway, I must get back to Rupert. We are so close to translating another section and I think we have finally found common ground in our love for research."  
  
Wesley limped through the Oak door and Cordelia caught a glimpse of the setting sun and a sudden itch to escape the confounds of the mansion developed.  
  
"Angel, if you help me get dressed, can we go out please? I feel like I have been in these four walls for days."  
  
"Cordelia, you know that the doctors told you to rest and that is what you are going to do."  
  
"I wasn't talking a session at the gym or a ride on the Chopper, I just meant a walk or go and visit Giles. But this being Sunnydale, I guess a walk is not such a good idea. Demons much."  
  
"Right we will go and see Giles and Buffy at the Magic Box but only for a little while and we will take the convertible, with the hood up. Now, I'm helping you get dressed?"  
  
Angel helped her take a shower by holding her up, totally amazed by her determination to try and stand on her own. He dressed her in black leather trousers and a long sleeved black jumper with a high roll neck to keep her warm. Cordelia walked out to the car, only aided by Weselys spare walking stick and they headed off to the Magic Box as the last of the suns orange rays disappeared from the blackening sky.  
  
The car pulled up into the vacant lot beside the Magic Box and Cordelia had forsaken the walking stick for the stronger support of Angels arm. They walked proudly into the Magic Box to find Wesley up on the balcony looking for a reference book and Giles behind the counter, hunched over the Scrolls. Willow was sitting behind the computer, a blue flickering on her face highlighting the concentration in her face, Tara was no where to be seen. Giles looked up from the scrolls as the bell above the door pinged.  
  
"Hello Cordelia, how nice to see you up and about. You look so much better then when I last saw you."  
  
Cordelia looked up to the balcony where Wesley was now hanging over it to see what all the commotion was about. "See English, now that is the greeting you give to a sick person. Thanks Giles. I feel a lot better and I owe you a big thank-you for that. Where is Gunn? I thought he was training with Buffy."  
  
"He was but he left with Spike a few minutes ago. I kinda left him a bit black and blue. I don't think he will be taking on any blonde in the near future. So Cordelia, Angel let you out for the night then." Buffy muttered walking out of the training room. Her hands were still covered by training gloves.  
  
"Very funny Slayer. So where is Captain America tonight? You let him out of your sight." Cordelia sized up Buffy, knowing that she had no chance no matter what condition she was in.  
  
"He'll be in later before we go patrolling together. So what is for eats around this place."  
  
"Well Xander and Anya went out for pizza and that was an hour so I don't think we'll be seeing them until tomorrow afternoon. They are like rabbits. I'll phone out for a pizza instead. Cheese, Ham and Pineapple for you Buffy. Cheese and Tomato for me and Wesley. What would you like Cordelia?"  
  
"I'll have what Buffys having but make mine a large."  
  
The group sat in silence until a knock at the door shattered the atmosphere. The pizza delivery boy stared at the group, sensing the tense atmosphere and was glad to leave when Giles had handed over the money. Cordelia balanced the pizza box on Angels knee and handed him a piece. Buffy watched the two intensely.  
  
"I thought you didn't eat normal food Angel." Giles said.  
  
"No he's very strange for a Vampire, he cooks wonderful food and he eats eggs and ice cream. I've never seen you eat pizza before."  
  
"That's because we only order it when your out because you pick all the bits of pineapple off the pizza and complain because you never see what is wrong with a plain pizza." Cordelia mocked.  
  
Wesley pretended to pout before starting to eat his own pizza. Cordelia stuck out her tongue in retaliation and Wesley stuck his out back. Angel let out a small growl. Wesley quickly pulled his tongue back into his mouth and shrunk back. Cordelia smiled at her victory.  
  
"Wesley, I warned Cordelia, now I am warning you. Don't let the wind change on you." Angel stared at Wesley and then broke out into a playful smile. Wesley looked back at him in relief.  
  
The Sunnydale gang just watched in amazement at the interaction between the three Slayerette misfits. They all felt the feeling Buffy had, had when she went to visit Cordelia to find the four of them camped up in Cordelias room. Angel looked at home in their company, a sight she had never saw when he was with her. The interaction was disturbed by the ringing of the bell above the shop door and Riley swaned, ginning happily, into the shop. Angel cautiously sniffed the air and looked quizzically at Riley. Riley bent down and kissed Buffy heavily on the forehead.  
  
"Had a bit of trouble Riley?" Angel asked suspiciously. "You smell like a Vampire!"  
  
"Yeah I...ran into a few of them on the way over here. The Inistive knew there was a nest in the area so i...helped them take care of them." Riley hesitantly asked.  
  
"Yeah and got snacked on by one in the process by the look of your neck. You've got a bite mark." Cordelia piped up.  
  
Buffys eyes flashed at his neck and she had seen them in the same place a few days before when she had been to his dorm before going on patrol. "Oh there old marks. We had a run in with Vampire cult and they got a hold of him but he's still here. It's the pills the army gave him, he doesn't heal as fast as usual."  
  
"Trust me Slayer, i know about bite marks and they are as fresh as a daisy. I think some one has been telling lies somewhere along the line." Cordelia joked.  
  
Riley turned angrily to face Cordelia and stared at her with eyes red in fury. "Buffy are you ready to go or are we gonna sit here and discuss my medical history a little more?" He spat.  
  
Buffy put down her pizza and grabbed her jacket. The stakes that were sitting on the shop counter were quickly hidden in various places around her person as she gathered her hair up in her 'don't-mess-with-me' ponytail while Riley stood in the corner tapping his foot inpatcaniantly. Buffy nodded her goodbyes before Riley hurrdily pulled her out of the door, just missing Cordelias "Touchy, much!"  
  
By the time Gunn and Spike returned back to the shop Giles had retired back to his apartment leaving Wesley still with his nose in the reference books. Anya and Xander still hadn't returned with the pizza but had, instead, phoned to let Giles know that they would see him in the mornig. Cordelia had fallen asleep in Angels lap and Angel sat, quite happily, stroking her hair. He had been reading her the last few chapters of the book since Cordelia had found it hard to focus on Willows computer. She had fallen asleep at, what Angel conseeded, as the the best part. Fergual and Mary had married after he had returned home from the richer lands in Europe and had finished when Fergual bought the mansion that he had longed for as a child, realising that his life was now complete. Angel was relieved when Cordelia had fell asleep before the end so she would not have heard the longing in his voice as he realised that he and Fergual shared a common propose: To furfil their dreams. Angel was already part way there but his soul cried silently as he realised that even with his Shansu he would never really furfil his dream to watch Cordelia walk down the ilse towards him, to father her children and to grow old with her in some old arm chair smelling of shared love and contentment. But that would never happen because Angels Shansu would only happen after lifetimes of battles, he couldn't rely on Lindseys rablings and Cordelia wasn't immortal, only to his heart and memory.  
  
Cordelia stired in Angels lap and turned upwards slowly to face him. A large smile spread across her face as she woke to his intense chocolate eyes.  
  
"Hey." She whispered sleepily. "I thought you would still be asleep."  
  
"I didn't want to sleep incase i ended up back on that Phykick link of ours and you needed your sleep. Instead i stayed up and watched you sleep. You do realise that you mutter in your sleep and i am sure we can pick up on those mutterings when we need to complete our union!" She smiled at him again and his heart took a leap.  
  
"Now i am going for a shower because i smell like a Angel and a mans scent on a woman doesn't smell the same plus you look a state so why don't you get some sleep. I can amuse myself exploring" She noted his concerned features. "Relax, i'll stay in the house. You could have secret panels and stuff in this house."  
  
"OK, i conced defeat but do you need a hand in the shower." Cordelia pulled the best 'Kinky Vampire.' face she could manage and struggled off Angels chest and trudged off towards the shower.  
  
~~**~~  
  
Cordelia peared her head around Angels door frame and found him blissfully sleeping, deader to the world. Cordelia smiled to herself wickedly and began to explore the house that was once Angels home. The livingroom had been fully explored with her general shuffling in the boredom of her injury. Her room had one hollow panel but she couldn't find the switch that opened and unlike in the movies, there wasn't any books that she could pull and the dooor would magically pop open. In fustration she thumped her fists weakly off the panel and an idea sprung to mind. Spikes Room!  
  
Spike had been caught by the first rays of sunshine and he and Gunn had sought refused at Giles who was rather angry at being waken up at 5am in the morning. She cationously opened the door, it creaked under it's own weight, and the darkened rooms musty scent hit her. She walked over to the window and forced it open, luckily on the ivy free side of the house, on let the suns natural light flood in. The site that greeted her was a surprise. There were books neatly stacked in the corner, clothes neatly folded on the bed side chair. All of the gels that Spike used on his hair were neatly stacked against a smashed mirrior, not that he would ever need to use it. She started work on the walls, lightly tapping her knuckles agains the wood and listening for a change in pitch of the return sound. Tap, Tap. Tap, tap. That was it, she had found a hidden panel. Her fingers serched along the picture rail feeling for an indent or a liuttle hook that would spring the panel. A sharp groove caught her finger and the door popped open. It was alittle cabinet buried deep into the wall like a safe without the metal door to protect it's contents. There were only two things in it: A leather bound book and a lock of blonde hair tied in a pink piece of ribbon. She carefully pulled out the leather bound book, expecting it to be covered in a thick layer of dust and she had discovered it a hidden treasure. She opened the first page to find the yellowed page covered in a scriptured writing.  
  
"William the Bloody, Spike."  
  
She held in a gasp as she realised she was holding Spikes diary. Cordelia pealed back the first page and sat down on the neatly made bed to read.  
  
*I don't know what the hell has happened to me. There was this woman, an amazing woman who promised me she could show me a whole different world. The did something to my neck, bit me and the next thing i know i am being pulled out the ground by the same woman. I tried to breath but i found i didn't need to, it's bloody amazing. I could hear the insects in the air, the hum of the night and i could smell the jasmine from the near-by trees. The night was no longer night, it was alive. I could see the bats that hoovered upside-down from the trees. The strength, man the strength, i can feel in my body is fantastic. I have power, i'm no longer the skinny freak that they boo out of inns because of my poetry: i could take them all on now.   
  
The girl has done something, she tried to explain it to me. I'm a Vampire; how stupid does that sound? They are of old folk stories and wives tale: There is no such thing. But there is, i felt it. I got real angry as this woman, Drucillia, danced around me calling me her childe, and i felt my face transform and the strength in body grew. I have all these memories but i feel nothing for all the bad things i did, even that sailor that i killed in Italy.  
  
This Is Amazing*  
  
Cordelia at last knew what Angel must have felt like when he woke up to find Darla by his grave, the feeling that he had as he grew to the new power he had. Spike had been there as well and she soon began to feel for the Vampire, the misunderstood Vampire. Cordelia flipped to the last page that had been written on, dated the night before.  
  
*All this damn book is full of now is things about HER. The bloody Slayer. I sat trying to figure out where it all started and the truth is; i don't know. She attracts Vampires like a fly to shit, i know that is bloody awful but it's true. Look at Peaches, he was whipped if ever i seen it and i used to curse and hate him for it but now i totally understand what he is going through.  
  
I seen him pine over the Cheerleader, Cordelia, in hospital. He sat by her bed for the whole time she was i there, never moving from her side. That is WHIPPED but then i realised if Buffy was in the same place i would do that. Her Nancy friends wouldn't let me and that Watcher...you would think he was her dad or some'it. I envy her you know? She has this great bunch of friends and her mum makes some mean fried eggs but i couldn't even keep a hold of Dru and she was glued to me.  
  
GOD I HATE SLAYERS: NO I Love my Slayer.*  
  
Cordelia dropped the book and her hand flew to her mouth in surprise as a little squel escaped. Angel came thundering down the hall in responce to the thump and a cry oput from Cordelia. He was realived to find her still standing but also with a look of the-cat-got-the-cream.  
  
"Cordelia what happened? I heard you scream and what are you doing in Spikes room?"  
  
"Has Spike mentioned a girl, a woman that he likes?"  
  
Angel looked at her, not sure where the conversation was going, not sure if he wanted to know. "Yes, while we were at the hospital and looking for you why?"  
  
"I know who she is." She stated simply. "It's Buffy!"  
  
Angel stared at the unsteady girl standing with the old book back in her hands. "What do you mean 'It's Buffy'?"  
  
Cordelia smiled at the reaction of surprise instead of the jealousy she had expected. "Spike has fallen in love with Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you know your destiny." She winced. "Look!" She pointed to the last line in the diarys passage. 'I Love My Slayer!!'   
  
Angel shrugged his shoulders and turned away from Cordelia. "I kinda guessed. Spike had said that if the woman he loved ended up in the O.R then nothing could save if her strength couldn't. In a funny way, i think that Buffy loves Spike as well but she is taking too long to realise it. I think Spike just needs some ammo to show Buffy how he really feels."  
  
Angel swung around and picked his jumper up from Cordelias bed and then his duster before fleeing out of the door leaving Cordelia concerned in his wake.  
  
~~**~~  
  
As Angel neared the bar he could see the blonde Vampire waiting for him. Spike sat playing with the glass of O+ waiting for his Sire, who had told him that he held the key to his happiness. Spike had laughed and snorted but he was like a moth to a candle and not caring if he got burnt.  
  
"Right Peaches, what is going on? You are acting all cryptic again. At least Angelus was straight to the point."  
  
Angel grabbed Spikes leather sleeve and pulled him around to the other side of the bar. Spike watched as Riley strode in bold as brass and sat down at the bar beside a Vampiress. He nodded to her and they left the bar, with Angel and Spike in stealth following. They followed them back to the old Sunnydale High School, chared and burnt beyond reconistion except to the students who had burnt it down. Nothing could have prepared Spike for what he saw when he rounded the corner to one of the locker room off the gym. Angel, on the other hand, had seen it all before in the bars in the seedier parts of LA.   
  
Riley sat on a make shift bed, reveling the adreniline that was pumping through his body, the light headed feeling as his body neared the edge, lack of oxygen making him see things: But it was his fix for that night. The Vampiress withdrew her fangs and licked the spot where they had just been. Riley stood up and handed her, her money before she left into the night. Riley soon followed her now that his deal had been done.  
  
"God!" Spike thumped his fist into the crumbling wall. "I can't believe he would do that to Buffy. He says he loves her."  
  
"He's not the only one. Cordelia found your diary; i know about Buffy." Spike put up his fists in a defensive stanse. Angel chuckled at his Childe. "I'm OK with it but you have to say something to her about Riley because she would only think i was being jealous. I think she feels the same but you know with you being a Vampire and trying to kill her at so many points in her life i think she just needs a nudge in the right direction."  
  
"You are ever a poof if i ever heard one. Next you'll be giving the address of an agony aunt in some magazine the cheerleader reads. Just forget it mate."  
  
"Spike! Why do you think you helped Buffy out when it came to defeating Adam? The Buffy-Bot helped her out when she had to go on her search for the First Slayer. Just tell her while i go and sort out Riley. He has one problem...all brawl and no brains, while i have both."  
  
Spike snorted in hilarity but the two Vampires parted, marching off in opposite directions. One was harbouring a guilt and feeling dread for the first time in his un-life. The other was heading off to finish the night playing games with a certain ex-commando who had a very large debt to pay.  
  
He couls see her through the window. She was combing her hair, it's soft blonde hazy in the dim light of her room. Buffy was dressed up for a night of slaying, her weapons conceled in ever imaginible place. Spike tried hard to not imagine where they were hidden and instead tapped lightly on the window pane. Buffy slid the window up and let the blonde Vampire in.  
  
"What do you want Spike? 'Cos if you want a slagging match, i don't have time. I am late for my patrol as it is so hurry up."  
  
Spike hestitantly stepped inside the Slayers room and let her scent wash over his. "Slayer sit down, there's something i need to tell you."  
  
Buffy heard the worry in her voice and cautiously sat on the end of her bed. "It isn't Dawn is it?"  
  
"No, she's hanging out with doughball, sorry, Xander and the demon. This is something about Riley."  
  
Buffy sprung to her feet and stood up in front of Spike. "What, is he hurt? Is he in a battle. I told him not to patrol without me."  
  
Spike growled and pushed Buffy back down to the bed by the shoulders. "Sit down Slayer. No he isn't hurt. We were out...er...patroling and we saw Riley going into the old high school, you know the one you burnt down. He wasn't alone. There was a femal Vampire, she was feeding from him. Riley was a willing victium but she stopped before ghe was draned. Buffy he paid her like some whore for sex."  
  
Buffy stood up again and turned Spike around with his pacing until he felt the back of his knees hit the edge of the bed where she had been sitting. Spike watched it happen in front of his eyes bt could do little to stop her reaction. A resounding slap landed across Spikes face. "You lier. Your fucking liar." Buffy sethed. "You ever come near me or my friends and i will stake you so help me God."  
  
Spike tried to reach out for Buffy as she ran passed him but she swatted his body away with souch force that he was back on the bed. Buffy lauched herself out of the window as across the roof before dropping and running in the direction of the cemetery. Spike sat on the bed, his head in his heads knowing that this was a bad idea. He thumped his hands on her comforter and followerd her scent out of the window, shouting, 'God I Hate Slayers!'  
  
~~**~~  
  
Angel had, had his fun with Riley, following him around all night, freaking him out in every alley way until he ran back into Willies, his face pure white in fear. Cordelia was sitting on the couch, her bandage now removed from her head as it was giving her 'a flat hair do.' Her speech had returned to normal and she was steady on her feet.  
  
"Oh your back. Where did you go in such a hurry huh?"  
  
"I had to show Spike something. For the first time, Spike reminded me of myself when i was first souled: insercure and still acting the Big 'I Am' because he is scared to admit to himself just how much of a heart he has."  
  
"Cryptic, much! Anyway brood-boy, while you were out showing Spike he had a heart, Wes and Gunn went home. Wesley has a hospital appointment in the morning and Gunn has gone to get my apartment ready for when i get back, taking Dennis with him, and tidy up the hotel. They took the Plymouth with them and left the Chopper here."  
  
"Right we are going to pack our bags and then we are heading home." Cordelia looked at him in confusion. "I miss LA and Spike discovering a heart is going to have concequences, whether good or bad and i don't want to be around when they happen. Plus you have to remember that your visions are going to come bvack soon and neather Gunn or Wesley are in a state to fight."  
  
"I wish we could stay here. I get you to myself and i get to wake up beside you every night. It's just us, no demons, no past, no visions. You'll go back to that lonely, big, olde hotel and i wil go back to my comfy, possesed apartment."  
  
"I can come over every night. I'm nocternal don't forget."  
  
"So will i occasionally wake up and find you in my bed?"  
  
"Will i occasionally sleep and find you in my dreams?"  
  
"You better or your in big trouble buster." She giggled and wrapped her arms around Angels neck. "Now are you going to be a good little Vampire and pack Miss Cordys bags for her because i'm still too ill to do much?" Cordelia pouted inbetween feather light kiss along Angels jaw. "Hold on if Wes and Gunn took the Plymouth, how are we going to get our bags home?"  
  
"We're not taking the Chopper home, Giles the Ripper is then coming home a few days later on the bus. He and Wes are on a big research kick. We are flying home, First Class."  
  
Cordelia sprung up from the couch and began fliting around the room picking up objects while Angel just watched in amusment. "Well don't just sit there. Help me pack you big ofth." Cordelia shouted at Angel.  
  
~~**~~  
  
Spike struted through the graveyard, her scent hanging the air like a calling card. Her unqiue scent of vinilla and cinimmion invading his nostrels. He could hear her grunts and struggles before he could see them and he sensed the Vampires that she was fighting. As he rounded over the hill, he could see her surrounded by ten Vampires, each taking a hit but Buffy never having a ahance to stake or maim any before they got back up and started their attack on her again. Spuike ran uinto the middle and stood back to bnack with the Slayer as their armouray flew in every direction. Spike with hissilver handed stake and Buffy with her trusty Mr. Pointy dusted seven of the vamps fbefore turning tot he last three. They looked at each other then back at Buffy and Spike standing side by side and decided begtter of it. They turned heel and ran leaving Spike to try and explain himself to Buffy. She turned to him, hate and anger in her eyes.  
  
"I thought i told you stay away from me!" She held her stake inches from his heart.  
  
"Whoa Slayer, let me explain. What i told you was the truth. Listen if you don't believe me, i don't blame you, but talk to Angel he saw it all. Riley was willing playing snack food for a Vampire."  
  
Buffy turned away from his and hugged herself against the suddern cold. "I know." She whispered. "I know about Riley." She repeated, turning back to face Spike with tears rolling down her face. "I've know about Riley for a month. I've been smelling it around him all the time, the Vampire bites, his constant disappearences. I slayed his first one but he must have found someone else."  
  
Spike walked over and slide his arms around her, trying to comfort her platonically and yearning for more. She smothered her head into his leather duster, sliding her arms around his neck. Spike gently rubbed her back as the sobs racked her body in successive droves. Buffy pulled slowly from him and looked at is face, searching for his soul. Their lips hovered milimeters from each other, Spike feeling her warm breath against his lifeless one. The two connectedin a spark of passiona nd fury, each reveling in the sensations long forgoteen and long missed since the last time they had kissed. Tounges intermoingled as they deepened the kiss, Buffys fingers played with the soft, platium hairs on Spikes neck while Spike circles his arms futher around her waist,drawing her ever closer to him. It was minutes before Spike remembered that Buffy was mortal and needed to breathe, regreating that he had to losen his grip on her.   
  
Buffy jumped back from Spike as if he were on fire but still clung to her hand. "I shouldn't have done that!" She forced out in panted breaths.  
  
"You did, you know it was right."  
  
"No it wasn't right. You're a Vampire, i'm a Slayer. It's not natural, we're born enemies."  
  
"That has never stopped either of us before. Please just have tonight."  
  
Buffy looked up from her chest and looked Spike in the eye. She saw his pleading, his urgency, They both had the urgency just feel loved again. A slight nod sealed the deal as Spike took her hand and lead her away from the hilltop.  
  
"Where are we going?" She asked as they left the cemetery.  
  
"Peaches is gone home with his Cheerleader and they have left a nice tidy mansion, a few of Cordelias candle and a big comforter. What do you say."  
  
She didn't need to say anything as they headed towards the old, ivy claimed building just as the sky started to turn form midnight black to shades of indigo as the sun slowly claimed the night.  
  
THE END....at last. 


End file.
